Life cut short for Grizzly Bear 164, remembering this gentle giant! скачать в хорошем качестве

Life cut short for Grizzly Bear 164, remembering this gentle giant!

When you work with bears for a living, you get to have your favorites. This young male was one of mine for sure. Born in 2011 to a female bear in the very south of the region, he had a very distinct blonde face as a yearling. He first started showing up on his own, feeding on the dandelions in 2015 as a four year old, and because of his face, I nicknamed him BlondeFace. He was very shy and easily moved off with the presense of people. Over the next few seasons he would make appearances frequently in the area to feed on the dandelions and berries. In 2016 he was collared and tagged, and was now known as bear 164. In 2017 on Sept 1st he was struck on the TransCanada Highway near Lac Des Arc as he crossed the very busy stretch of highway. Being one of the first on sight I was able to track him into deep cover but was unable to determine his injuries without entering a very unsafe situation. The next morning I returned at 5 am to once again check on him and he had moved about 500m, and it took a few days to finally see him moving about with hardly more then a limp. He was later captured for a medical once over could be done to look for pelvic fractures and other injuries and he was found to be in great health and released, but was fitted with a very loose GPS collar to monitor his movements as he healed up. After this, because of his bright orange tag we got sightings of him all over the province. In a short period he went from the valleys in Kananaskis to the golf course in Banff. A few weeks later he was near Sundre before heading south to the Bragg Creek region, eventually traveling to almost Longview before turning back and returning to the Peter Lougheed area in December to den. He even rubbed his loose collar off at a popular rub tree in the valley before calling it a season. In 2018, now 7 years old, he once again showed up, he was becoming much more elusive like males typically get as they gain size and dominance. He and one of the resident females were frequent mating partners, but his appearances became less and less often. Picking up his ear transmitter would be a pleasant surprise and had a few of us rushing to catch a glimpse of him as he passed through the area. He was putting on some size and no longer looked like a juvenile bear, even with the change in size he was still a very shy, almost a timid bear. Just talking to him and he would respond well, there was no need for any other aversive actions on him, he wanted to be away from people and he wanted to mind his own business. In late June, early July, I over hear a report for a grizzly with an orange ear tag on Scott Lake's Hill on the TransCanada Hwy. It was late and my shift was almost over, but I respond regardless and travel the 65-70km and from the highway I was able to pick up his transmitter. The ear transmitters had a limited range unless you had a straight shot, (line of sight) without major elevation changes. Without seeing him I was able to pin point his location in the pitch black to near a residence on the Stoney Dakoda First Nation. His location wasn't changing and there seemed to be a ton of activity with people coming to that location. As I sat there at the pullout just before midnight the beeps of his transmitter suddeningly stopped. Did he go over the hill and I lost his signal? Without being able to confirm what took place I knew, and despite the fact that indigenous people can harvest a bear, or if he got into something he shouldn't have, or if he was shot out of safety.......all I wanted was to know for 100%. I returned the following morning and criss crossed the region on the TCH, looping around Hwy 40 and down the Sibbald road and there was no signal, no sign of him. For the rest of that season myself and my counter shift scowered the valley for him, and checked all the online pages to see if he was sighted. I reached out to a few associates if I could have my thoughts confirmed and never got an answer back, did he die that night on the reserve? Or did he go off grid like males do? In the years that followed, I always hoped this male would of showed up on a wildlife camera or someone was lucky enough and got an image of him. I know what I think happened, but I can't confirm it. Bear 164 was an amazing bear and I am so very glad that I was able to have worked with this gentle and shy giant, he was the easiest bear I had ever worked with. Cheers to the life of 164!