The Wrangell sentinel. (Wrangell, Alaska) 1909-current, 1933-02-24
Brown Bear Dangerous

And this is the sort of hooey
written by travelling writer's and
published as articles for unsuspect-
ing outside readers. The other ar
ticles l have in mind were about
the Alaska brown bear, the largest
member of the grizzly family.
The articles maintain that the Al
aska brown bear is a harmless crea-
ture and will not make an unmo-
Tested or unprovoked attack on
person. will contradict such state
ments and l know that l will be
backed by the opinion of all old
time Alaskans living in or near the
brown bear country.
The brown bear is a dangerous
animal. This has been proved many
times. Throughout the bear range
number of unarmed men have
been fearfully mauled and torn. In
several instances the mauling has
been fatal. Many of these attacks
nave never been brought to public
attention. Alaskans knowing this
animal seldom go 'unarmed into bear
country, and lots of times ON re-
turning from the hills they will
mention to a friend that a brown
bear tried to start something and
thew had to kill him
l am very sure that the men
writing these articles on the brown
bear stated what they believed to be
the truth but the articles show \
lack of experience and an ignorance
of the animal they studied.
Changeable Temperaments
The brown bears temperament is
as changeable as his range is long.
You can't know his habits by spend
ing a few summer vacations in just
pin point of an area located in
the most accessible districts of his
vast range. Nor will you learn
much about him on an organized
hunting trip. Hunting parties are
taken to the most accessible parts
of the brown bears range-the is
lands and the open country of Alas
ka Peninsula. Here he has been
nunted and shot at by outside hunt
ers for forty years and has been well
educated by the bum shooting of the
average hunter.
In these open and very accessible
districts the brown bear are still
plentiful but very shy and we'll say
retiring, because If he sees you first,
you will only see the back end of
him going over a distant hill. But
in the out of the way districts, the
steep wooded mountain country that
only the trapper and prospector
know, there is a decided change of
temperament in the bear.
Summertime Naturalists
l would advise the summertime
naturalists to try these sections,
leaving their companions in camp
and l dare them to leave their
rifles in camp when they go out.
Most attacks have been made on
men that were alone. l know if one
of these naturalists will stay long
enough, some day he won't come
back.
1 won't go into detail about my
own experiences with brown bear,
but will say that lived six years in
brown bear country before one
came at me for no reason l knew of
and since then l have stopped one
other bear that showed fight, and
had a bad scare thrown into me
while lining river boat when had
no gun in my hands.
Reasons for Attacks
will explain various reasons why
bears make an attack. The most dan
gerous of these situations is when
a man walks up on bear when it
is feeding on the carcass of some
animal it has found. Kenai PENN
suIa was a bad district for this
sort of situation. The bear are ac-
customed to feed on moose carcasses
and in the spring after an unusual
ly hard winter when moose have