1 00:00:01,560 --> 00:00:04,720 Speaker 1: Whether the Grizzly strikes us as the West's most dangerous 2 00:00:04,760 --> 00:00:08,879 Speaker 1: creature or as its wilderness avatar deity. The Great Bear's 3 00:00:08,960 --> 00:00:12,160 Speaker 1: fate has seen it reduced outside Alaska from fifty six 4 00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:16,160 Speaker 1: thousand and eighteen hundred to fewer than two thousand today. 5 00:00:16,880 --> 00:00:20,800 Speaker 1: But the Big Bears survive, and their presence distinguishes the 6 00:00:20,840 --> 00:00:25,079 Speaker 1: West from every other region. I'm Dan Flores, and this 7 00:00:25,239 --> 00:00:29,880 Speaker 1: is the American West, brought to you by Velvet Buck Wine, 8 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:33,160 Speaker 1: where the hunt meets the harvest. A portion of each 9 00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:37,800 Speaker 1: bottle goes to support backcountry hunters and anglers. Limited supply 10 00:00:37,960 --> 00:00:41,559 Speaker 1: available at Velvetbuck Vineyards dot com. 11 00:00:41,800 --> 00:00:43,360 Speaker 2: Enjoy responsible. 12 00:00:58,560 --> 00:01:06,360 Speaker 1: The most Dangerous beet or God of the West. In 13 00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:10,039 Speaker 1: eighteen seventy four, on a steamer heading up the Missouri 14 00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:14,840 Speaker 1: River in Montana Territory, Western artist William de la Montaigne, 15 00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:19,080 Speaker 1: Carrie witnessed a scene one morning that afterwards he replayed 16 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:21,959 Speaker 1: in his mind for the rest of his life. From 17 00:01:21,959 --> 00:01:26,120 Speaker 1: the boat deck through good sharp field glasses, Carrie and 18 00:01:26,160 --> 00:01:30,680 Speaker 1: his companions, for several minutes watched a drama unfold that 19 00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:34,600 Speaker 1: transfixed them with a chill Carrie could not shake off. 20 00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:37,880 Speaker 1: It created a memory that never let go of him. 21 00:01:38,680 --> 00:01:42,000 Speaker 1: Here's how he wrote the scene. About a mile off 22 00:01:42,200 --> 00:01:46,920 Speaker 1: an immense grizzly bear was making for a cottonwood miles away, 23 00:01:47,520 --> 00:01:52,000 Speaker 1: and behind the bear came two men, superbly mounted, armed 24 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:56,080 Speaker 1: to the teeth. We could see distinctly the horses straining 25 00:01:56,200 --> 00:02:00,640 Speaker 1: every muscle to overtake the bear, who was equally anxious 26 00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:05,800 Speaker 1: and making every effort to escape his pursuers. On the 27 00:02:05,840 --> 00:02:09,919 Speaker 1: American Serengeti of the last century, this was a site 28 00:02:09,960 --> 00:02:13,280 Speaker 1: of sites, and as an artist of the West, Carrie 29 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:16,679 Speaker 1: well knew it. What he was seeing ranked with Western 30 00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:23,440 Speaker 1: spectacles like buffalo, sampedes, prairie wildfires, or cavalry or Indian charges, 31 00:02:23,680 --> 00:02:28,000 Speaker 1: and for the same reason, all implied furious activity with 32 00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:33,200 Speaker 1: mortal outcomes at stake. But what required buffalo in mass 33 00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:36,760 Speaker 1: numbers to affect a grizzly bear, even one running for 34 00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:40,520 Speaker 1: its very life, could evoke solitaire, and that was what 35 00:02:40,639 --> 00:02:44,960 Speaker 1: transfixed Carrie and his companions in the American West. The 36 00:02:45,040 --> 00:02:49,000 Speaker 1: grizzly was the counterpart to the lion or leopard of 37 00:02:49,080 --> 00:02:52,720 Speaker 1: the Massai Mara, or the striped tiger of the steamy 38 00:02:52,800 --> 00:02:54,960 Speaker 1: jungles of the Bengal the. 39 00:02:55,040 --> 00:02:57,360 Speaker 2: Largest and most powerful creature of the. 40 00:02:57,440 --> 00:03:02,080 Speaker 1: Land mass, fully capable of killing humans, fully capable under 41 00:03:02,160 --> 00:03:07,840 Speaker 1: certain unusual conditions, of consuming humans too. We obviously feel 42 00:03:07,840 --> 00:03:11,680 Speaker 1: a certain primal dread for any animal that might configure 43 00:03:11,760 --> 00:03:15,240 Speaker 1: us as a meal, probably especially so an animal like 44 00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:18,600 Speaker 1: a bear that's so much more human like in its 45 00:03:18,639 --> 00:03:23,360 Speaker 1: attack than big cats or sharks, even at a distance. 46 00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:27,120 Speaker 1: William Carey must have experienced an adrenaline rush from that 47 00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:30,680 Speaker 1: kind of genetic memory, but clearly he also felt a 48 00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:33,800 Speaker 1: sympathy for the bear as it crashed across the prairie, 49 00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:37,880 Speaker 1: fleeing its pursuers. The artist was one of a legion 50 00:03:37,960 --> 00:03:42,840 Speaker 1: of nineteenth century disciples of James Fennimore Cooper, and with 51 00:03:42,920 --> 00:03:45,040 Speaker 1: two friends he had made a first trip up the 52 00:03:45,040 --> 00:03:49,160 Speaker 1: Missouri River in eighteen sixty one, returning home with sketches 53 00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:51,920 Speaker 1: and some paintings. He'd gone on to become a magazine 54 00:03:52,080 --> 00:03:56,000 Speaker 1: and newspaper illustrator in New York, working for magazines like 55 00:03:56,080 --> 00:04:00,560 Speaker 1: Scribner's and Harper's Weekly. It was their assignments sent him 56 00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:04,800 Speaker 1: into the Northern planes again in eighteen seventy four. The 57 00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:08,040 Speaker 1: grizzly encounter was one of the high points of his trip, 58 00:04:08,280 --> 00:04:12,280 Speaker 1: and he ended up executing a beautiful oil painting of 59 00:04:12,320 --> 00:04:15,760 Speaker 1: what he believed happened at the end of that chase. 60 00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:22,000 Speaker 1: Variously titled Cattleman Tracing Grizzly to a den or mother 61 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:26,400 Speaker 1: bear guarding cubs. It became the prize piece of the 62 00:04:26,480 --> 00:04:30,159 Speaker 1: Artists exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in 63 00:04:30,240 --> 00:04:34,719 Speaker 1: New York in nineteen seventeen. No less than famed Western 64 00:04:34,720 --> 00:04:39,680 Speaker 1: writer conservationist George Bird Grennell penned the accompanying texts for 65 00:04:39,720 --> 00:04:44,280 Speaker 1: that exhibit. By nineteen seventeen, Grennell wrote, far from being 66 00:04:44,320 --> 00:04:49,320 Speaker 1: the aggressive giant carnivores of the early wilderness West, grizzlies 67 00:04:49,440 --> 00:04:55,600 Speaker 1: have become the shyest of game and are well nigh extinct. Somehow, 68 00:04:55,720 --> 00:04:59,200 Speaker 1: in barely more than a century, the West's most imposing 69 00:04:59,279 --> 00:05:03,920 Speaker 1: creature stood at the brink of extinction on the Great Plains, 70 00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:07,279 Speaker 1: the setting where the reading world had first heard about 71 00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:13,320 Speaker 1: Urso's Arctos Heribelus. By nineteen seventeen, the giant bears were 72 00:05:13,720 --> 00:05:19,920 Speaker 1: entirely extirpated. How we react to other animals is in 73 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:26,000 Speaker 1: part primate hardwiring. Despite our pretensions, we are still animals 74 00:05:26,040 --> 00:05:29,440 Speaker 1: out of Africa. The thump in the dark, the start 75 00:05:29,520 --> 00:05:33,360 Speaker 1: to full waking. The pounding heart can transport us back 76 00:05:33,400 --> 00:05:37,000 Speaker 1: to our origins in a fraction of a second. In 77 00:05:37,040 --> 00:05:41,080 Speaker 1: a study done by neuroscientists in twenty eleven among a 78 00:05:41,160 --> 00:05:45,200 Speaker 1: large sample of patients, they found we twenty first century 79 00:05:45,320 --> 00:05:50,880 Speaker 1: humans still retain a pronounced selectivity for imagery of animals 80 00:05:51,040 --> 00:05:56,000 Speaker 1: in the amygdala of the human brain. Amygdala are almond 81 00:05:56,080 --> 00:06:01,039 Speaker 1: shaped masses of gray nuclei inside each of our cerebral lobes. 82 00:06:01,400 --> 00:06:05,480 Speaker 1: They're centers for emotional behavior and motivation. And what the 83 00:06:05,520 --> 00:06:10,760 Speaker 1: science demonstrated was that our right hemisphere amgdala evolved and 84 00:06:10,839 --> 00:06:17,160 Speaker 1: yet engages in a neural specialization for processing visual information 85 00:06:17,520 --> 00:06:21,920 Speaker 1: about animals. So there is that part of our reaction 86 00:06:22,080 --> 00:06:24,880 Speaker 1: to creatures like grizzly bears. But much of what we 87 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:28,799 Speaker 1: think when Bear comes to mind emerges from the tangled 88 00:06:28,839 --> 00:06:30,960 Speaker 1: mess of software programs. 89 00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:32,000 Speaker 2: That is culture. 90 00:06:32,440 --> 00:06:36,400 Speaker 1: What we've heard, what we've read, what we've inferred, what 91 00:06:36,480 --> 00:06:40,520 Speaker 1: others have implied for some of us, what we've experienced. 92 00:06:40,680 --> 00:06:42,320 Speaker 2: All these and other ways. 93 00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:46,040 Speaker 1: Of absorbing information go into creating a construction in our 94 00:06:46,120 --> 00:06:52,039 Speaker 1: minds like Bear. When an Idaho governor publicly opposed recovering 95 00:06:52,080 --> 00:06:54,760 Speaker 1: grizzly bears in the Bitterroot Mountains at the turn of 96 00:06:54,800 --> 00:06:58,760 Speaker 1: the twenty first century, because he said he didn't want massive, 97 00:06:59,120 --> 00:07:03,599 Speaker 1: flesh eating carnivores in Idaho. He was imagining a bear 98 00:07:03,880 --> 00:07:08,839 Speaker 1: defined as much by human culture as biology. So the 99 00:07:08,920 --> 00:07:12,000 Speaker 1: truth is that many kinds of bears look back at 100 00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:16,960 Speaker 1: us a maddening but fascinating aspect of the world. Those 101 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:20,480 Speaker 1: are the bears in the mirror, the bears human see 102 00:07:20,800 --> 00:07:24,000 Speaker 1: when we look at grizzlies through the lenses of our 103 00:07:24,120 --> 00:07:30,400 Speaker 1: minds and cultures. Non human nature writer D. H. Lawrence 104 00:07:30,480 --> 00:07:34,280 Speaker 1: once said, is the outward and visible expression of the 105 00:07:34,320 --> 00:07:37,240 Speaker 1: mystery that confronts us when we look into the depths 106 00:07:37,280 --> 00:07:41,080 Speaker 1: of our own being. As another writer who sought to 107 00:07:41,200 --> 00:07:46,000 Speaker 1: understand our relationship with nature, the remarkable Paul Shepherd, author 108 00:07:46,040 --> 00:07:49,880 Speaker 1: of The Tender Carnivore and The Sacred Game, put it 109 00:07:49,920 --> 00:07:53,840 Speaker 1: in one of his last books. By disdaining the beast 110 00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:58,200 Speaker 1: in us, we grow away from the world instead of 111 00:07:58,440 --> 00:08:03,520 Speaker 1: into it. That line stands as almost a summary of 112 00:08:03,640 --> 00:08:08,239 Speaker 1: how we reacted to grizzly bears. Lewis and Clark's journey 113 00:08:08,320 --> 00:08:13,880 Speaker 1: and Bear experiences indicated some fifty six thousand grizzlies inhabited 114 00:08:13,920 --> 00:08:17,040 Speaker 1: the lower forty eight when they trekked across the West, 115 00:08:17,760 --> 00:08:21,880 Speaker 1: starting with them across much of Western history. We tried 116 00:08:21,960 --> 00:08:26,160 Speaker 1: to disappear that fifty thousand plus bears just as fast 117 00:08:26,200 --> 00:08:32,040 Speaker 1: as we could. Despite a scattering of encounters with grizzly 118 00:08:32,080 --> 00:08:36,240 Speaker 1: bears as early as the sixteen hundreds, For two centuries 119 00:08:36,280 --> 00:08:40,120 Speaker 1: after Europeans settled the continent, grizzly bears were little known 120 00:08:40,200 --> 00:08:43,959 Speaker 1: to folk knowledge and only existed as rumors in the 121 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:48,120 Speaker 1: scientific grasp of North America. The first known description of 122 00:08:48,120 --> 00:08:51,840 Speaker 1: grizzlies we have by a European was left by Spanish 123 00:08:51,880 --> 00:08:57,360 Speaker 1: explorer Sebastian Voscano in the year sixteen oh two, sailing 124 00:08:57,400 --> 00:09:01,400 Speaker 1: along California's central coast, in the Bay where Moterey and 125 00:09:01,520 --> 00:09:04,880 Speaker 1: Carmel and Pebble Beach golf Course would one day stand. 126 00:09:05,120 --> 00:09:08,439 Speaker 1: Two centuries before the Lewis and Clark expedition would bring 127 00:09:08,720 --> 00:09:13,480 Speaker 1: white bears to the attention of enlightenment science, Vescano watched 128 00:09:13,640 --> 00:09:18,040 Speaker 1: grizzlies clamoring with astonishing nimbleness over the carcass of a 129 00:09:18,120 --> 00:09:22,839 Speaker 1: whale washed up on a Moterey Bay beach. Almost a 130 00:09:22,840 --> 00:09:27,160 Speaker 1: century later, in sixteen ninety and far far inland, a 131 00:09:27,280 --> 00:09:32,280 Speaker 1: Hudson's Bay Indian trader named Henry Kelsey was traveling overland 132 00:09:32,360 --> 00:09:36,240 Speaker 1: on the grassy yellow Plains of Saskatchewan when his party 133 00:09:36,600 --> 00:09:39,840 Speaker 1: encountered a grizzly. This was not a view from the 134 00:09:39,880 --> 00:09:43,040 Speaker 1: safety of a sailing vessel, but face to face on 135 00:09:43,080 --> 00:09:47,160 Speaker 1: the ground, and Kelsey's first reaction was to shoot. He 136 00:09:47,240 --> 00:09:51,240 Speaker 1: thus became the first European of record to kill a 137 00:09:51,280 --> 00:09:54,800 Speaker 1: grizzly bear, an event pregnant with portents for the future 138 00:09:54,800 --> 00:09:59,080 Speaker 1: of bears and of the Great Plains. Kelsey's act greatly 139 00:09:59,200 --> 00:10:03,120 Speaker 1: alarmed his Indian companions, who warned him that he had 140 00:10:03,200 --> 00:10:09,600 Speaker 1: struck down a god. Paleontology, archaeology, and the historical record 141 00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:14,080 Speaker 1: have convincingly established that the entire western half of North America, 142 00:10:14,200 --> 00:10:18,240 Speaker 1: including California, the River Corridor spilling from the Rockies out 143 00:10:18,280 --> 00:10:22,280 Speaker 1: across the plains, and the island mountain ranges of the Southwest, 144 00:10:22,559 --> 00:10:27,600 Speaker 1: were all grizzly country. Then Fiscado's sightings were on the 145 00:10:27,600 --> 00:10:31,439 Speaker 1: Pacific coast, Kelsey and Lewis and Clark saw all their 146 00:10:31,480 --> 00:10:34,880 Speaker 1: grizzlies on the high plains. The bears were in those 147 00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:39,480 Speaker 1: locations because of their food sources. Grizzlies in the interior 148 00:10:39,679 --> 00:10:44,680 Speaker 1: were primarily plains animals because of the vast opportunities thirty 149 00:10:44,760 --> 00:10:48,760 Speaker 1: million Buffalo provided. In other words, when you were in 150 00:10:48,800 --> 00:10:52,400 Speaker 1: Buffalo country in the early West, you were in grizzly 151 00:10:52,520 --> 00:10:58,480 Speaker 1: country too. One of the stories from early American forays 152 00:10:58,480 --> 00:11:01,600 Speaker 1: into the West that has long found me, a story 153 00:11:01,640 --> 00:11:04,800 Speaker 1: that passed by word of mouth back to places like 154 00:11:04,880 --> 00:11:08,120 Speaker 1: my home state of Louisiana, took place on the southern 155 00:11:08,200 --> 00:11:12,439 Speaker 1: high Plains in eighteen twenty one on what was christened 156 00:11:12,679 --> 00:11:16,840 Speaker 1: White Bear Creek now known as the Purgatory River, on 157 00:11:16,920 --> 00:11:22,160 Speaker 1: the plains southeast of Pike's Peak in Colorado. A group 158 00:11:22,200 --> 00:11:25,880 Speaker 1: of Missouri and Louisiana traders had worked their way up 159 00:11:25,920 --> 00:11:29,280 Speaker 1: the Arkansas River to trade with the Comanches, and when 160 00:11:29,320 --> 00:11:32,480 Speaker 1: the coal snaps of November hit, they moved towards the 161 00:11:32,559 --> 00:11:36,560 Speaker 1: mountains to seek winter quarters. For many of the semi 162 00:11:36,559 --> 00:11:40,000 Speaker 1: illiterate Southern traders involved, this was their first inkling that 163 00:11:40,040 --> 00:11:44,040 Speaker 1: the West held anything like a grizzly bear. I find 164 00:11:44,040 --> 00:11:49,160 Speaker 1: this account flavorly preserved and creatively spelled too. In the 165 00:11:49,240 --> 00:11:53,920 Speaker 1: journal of a trader named Jacob Fowler, chillingly authentic and 166 00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:58,480 Speaker 1: also tragic for both man and bear. This is how 167 00:11:58,600 --> 00:12:03,120 Speaker 1: Fowler told this remarkable story in the daily journal he kept. 168 00:12:04,160 --> 00:12:09,600 Speaker 1: Thirteen November eighteen twenty one, Tuesday, went to the highest 169 00:12:09,720 --> 00:12:12,720 Speaker 1: of the mounds near our camp and took the bearing 170 00:12:12,920 --> 00:12:17,040 Speaker 1: of the supposed mountain, which stood at north eighty west. 171 00:12:17,600 --> 00:12:20,360 Speaker 1: We then proceeded on two and a half miles to 172 00:12:20,440 --> 00:12:24,040 Speaker 1: a small creek, crossed it, and ascended a gradual rise 173 00:12:24,120 --> 00:12:27,640 Speaker 1: for about three miles to the highest ground in the neighborhood, 174 00:12:27,800 --> 00:12:31,200 Speaker 1: where we had a full view of the mountains. This 175 00:12:31,280 --> 00:12:35,120 Speaker 1: must be the place where in eighteen oh seven Zebulin 176 00:12:35,200 --> 00:12:39,200 Speaker 1: Montgomery Pike first discovered the mountains. Here I took the 177 00:12:39,200 --> 00:12:42,520 Speaker 1: bearing of two that were the highest, crossed the creek, 178 00:12:42,760 --> 00:12:45,960 Speaker 1: and camped in a grove of bushes and timber about 179 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:49,400 Speaker 1: two miles up it from the river. We made eleven 180 00:12:49,440 --> 00:12:52,960 Speaker 1: miles west this day. We stopped here about one o'clock 181 00:12:53,040 --> 00:12:55,360 Speaker 1: and sent back for one horse that was not able 182 00:12:55,400 --> 00:12:58,640 Speaker 1: to keep up. We here found some grapes among the brush, 183 00:12:59,040 --> 00:13:02,760 Speaker 1: while some were hunted and others cooking. Some picking grapes. 184 00:13:02,880 --> 00:13:06,160 Speaker 1: A gun was fired and the cry of a white 185 00:13:06,280 --> 00:13:10,080 Speaker 1: bear was raised. We were all armed in an instant, 186 00:13:10,240 --> 00:13:13,280 Speaker 1: and each man run his own course to look for 187 00:13:13,360 --> 00:13:16,440 Speaker 1: the desperate animal. The brush in which we were camped 188 00:13:16,480 --> 00:13:19,520 Speaker 1: contained from ten to twenty acres into which the bear 189 00:13:19,800 --> 00:13:24,400 Speaker 1: had run for shelter. Finding himself surrounded on all sides. 190 00:13:25,080 --> 00:13:29,640 Speaker 1: Through this, Colonel Glenn with four others attempted to run, 191 00:13:29,840 --> 00:13:32,600 Speaker 1: but the bear being in their way, and lay close 192 00:13:32,679 --> 00:13:35,360 Speaker 1: in the brush undiscovered, till they were within a few 193 00:13:35,400 --> 00:13:38,400 Speaker 1: feet of it, when it sprung up and caught Louis 194 00:13:38,520 --> 00:13:40,120 Speaker 1: Dawson and pulled him down. 195 00:13:40,160 --> 00:13:40,840 Speaker 2: In an instant. 196 00:13:41,320 --> 00:13:45,120 Speaker 1: Colonel Glenn's gun missfire, or he would ever lieved the man, 197 00:13:45,360 --> 00:13:48,920 Speaker 1: but a large dog which belongs to the party, attacked 198 00:13:48,960 --> 00:13:51,640 Speaker 1: the bear with such fury that it left the man 199 00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:55,000 Speaker 1: and pursued her a few steps, in which time the 200 00:13:55,080 --> 00:13:57,760 Speaker 1: man got up and run a few steps, but was 201 00:13:57,840 --> 00:14:01,439 Speaker 1: overtaken by the bear. The Colonel made a second attempt 202 00:14:01,480 --> 00:14:05,160 Speaker 1: to shoot his gun, missed fire again, and the dog, 203 00:14:05,200 --> 00:14:08,840 Speaker 1: as before, relieved the man, who run as before, but 204 00:14:09,080 --> 00:14:12,280 Speaker 1: was soon again in the grasp of the bear, who 205 00:14:12,400 --> 00:14:18,240 Speaker 1: seemed intent on his destruction. The colonel now became alarmed 206 00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:20,920 Speaker 1: lest the bear would pursue him and run up a 207 00:14:20,920 --> 00:14:24,640 Speaker 1: stooping tree, and after him the wounded man, and was 208 00:14:24,800 --> 00:14:28,480 Speaker 1: followed by the bear, And thus they were all three 209 00:14:28,520 --> 00:14:32,160 Speaker 1: of one tree. But the bear caught Dawson by one 210 00:14:32,280 --> 00:14:36,400 Speaker 1: leg and drew him backwards down the tree. I was 211 00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:39,280 Speaker 1: myself down the creek below the brush, and heard the 212 00:14:39,360 --> 00:14:42,000 Speaker 1: dreadful screams of the man in the clutches of the bear, 213 00:14:42,360 --> 00:14:45,240 Speaker 1: the yelping of the dog, and the hollowing of the man. 214 00:14:45,360 --> 00:14:47,720 Speaker 1: To run in, run in, the man will be killed. 215 00:14:48,120 --> 00:14:50,560 Speaker 1: But before I got to the place of action, the 216 00:14:50,560 --> 00:14:53,520 Speaker 1: bear was killed, and I met the wounded man, with 217 00:14:53,680 --> 00:14:57,080 Speaker 1: Robert Fowler and one or two more assisting him to camp, 218 00:14:57,160 --> 00:15:01,160 Speaker 1: where his wounds were examined. It appeared his head was 219 00:15:01,200 --> 00:15:04,240 Speaker 1: in the bear's mouth at least twice, and that when 220 00:15:04,280 --> 00:15:07,120 Speaker 1: the monster gave the crush that was to mash the 221 00:15:07,160 --> 00:15:10,200 Speaker 1: man's head, it being too large for the span of 222 00:15:10,240 --> 00:15:13,800 Speaker 1: his mouth, the head slipped out only the teeth, cutting 223 00:15:13,840 --> 00:15:16,760 Speaker 1: the skin to the bone wherever they touched it, so 224 00:15:16,880 --> 00:15:19,480 Speaker 1: that the skin of the head was cut from about 225 00:15:19,520 --> 00:15:23,040 Speaker 1: the ears to the top in several directions, all of 226 00:15:23,080 --> 00:15:25,840 Speaker 1: which wounds were sewed up as well as could be 227 00:15:25,920 --> 00:15:29,280 Speaker 1: done by men. In our situation, having no surgeon nor 228 00:15:29,360 --> 00:15:34,200 Speaker 1: surgical instruments. The man still retained his understanding, but said 229 00:15:34,600 --> 00:15:37,640 Speaker 1: I am killed, that I heard my skull break. But 230 00:15:37,760 --> 00:15:40,280 Speaker 1: we were willing to believe he was mistaken, as he 231 00:15:40,400 --> 00:15:43,640 Speaker 1: spoke cheerfully on the subject till in the afternoon of 232 00:15:43,680 --> 00:15:47,120 Speaker 1: the second day, when he began to be restless and 233 00:15:47,320 --> 00:15:50,960 Speaker 1: somewhat delirious, and on examining a hole in the upper 234 00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:54,840 Speaker 1: part of his right temple, which we believed only skin deep, 235 00:15:55,120 --> 00:15:59,000 Speaker 1: we found the brains working out. We then supposed that 236 00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:02,600 Speaker 1: he did here his skull break. He lived till a 237 00:16:02,640 --> 00:16:05,840 Speaker 1: little before day on the third day, after being wounded, 238 00:16:06,400 --> 00:16:09,640 Speaker 1: all which time we lay at camp and buried him 239 00:16:09,720 --> 00:16:13,400 Speaker 1: as well as our means would admit. Immediately after the 240 00:16:13,440 --> 00:16:16,400 Speaker 1: fatal accident, and having done all we could for the 241 00:16:16,400 --> 00:16:19,520 Speaker 1: wounded man, we turned our attention to the bear and 242 00:16:19,680 --> 00:16:23,920 Speaker 1: found him a large, fat animal. We skinned him, but 243 00:16:24,080 --> 00:16:26,720 Speaker 1: found the smell of a pole cat so strong that 244 00:16:26,800 --> 00:16:29,960 Speaker 1: we could not eat the meat. On examining his mouth, 245 00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:33,160 Speaker 1: we found that three of his teeth were broken off 246 00:16:33,280 --> 00:16:37,080 Speaker 1: near the gums, which we suppose was the cause of 247 00:16:37,120 --> 00:16:40,240 Speaker 1: his not killing the man at the first bite, and 248 00:16:40,280 --> 00:16:43,280 Speaker 1: the one tooth not broke to be the cause of 249 00:16:43,320 --> 00:16:46,320 Speaker 1: the hole in the right temple which killed the man. 250 00:16:46,440 --> 00:16:55,160 Speaker 1: At last, two things strike me about this story every 251 00:16:55,240 --> 00:16:59,600 Speaker 1: time I read it. One is how unlucky a mature, 252 00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:03,160 Speaker 1: veteran male bear was to have a party of armed 253 00:17:03,160 --> 00:17:06,840 Speaker 1: traders stumble closely in a thick brush along a creek 254 00:17:06,920 --> 00:17:10,440 Speaker 1: festooned with ripe grapes on which the bear was no 255 00:17:10,560 --> 00:17:16,479 Speaker 1: doubt gorging to prepare for hibernation. And second, this was 256 00:17:16,600 --> 00:17:22,560 Speaker 1: a familiar consistent reaction from big predators. Once the grizzlys 257 00:17:22,640 --> 00:17:27,800 Speaker 1: lair was invaded, the bear focused specifically on one man 258 00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:32,359 Speaker 1: and ignored the rest of the party. Fowler mentions hearing 259 00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:36,760 Speaker 1: a single shot at the outset of the melee. Given 260 00:17:36,840 --> 00:17:40,119 Speaker 1: how many times Lewis and Clark describe a grizzly going 261 00:17:40,240 --> 00:17:43,080 Speaker 1: straight for the member of their party who shot it, 262 00:17:43,359 --> 00:17:46,680 Speaker 1: I'm convinced Dawson must have shot this bear, and from 263 00:17:46,720 --> 00:17:52,280 Speaker 1: that point on he was its single minded focus of revenge. 264 00:17:52,400 --> 00:17:55,840 Speaker 1: African lions are known to do the very same thing. 265 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:02,520 Speaker 1: The stories such as this one and the Huge Glass 266 00:18:02,640 --> 00:18:06,199 Speaker 1: story from the Northern Plains circulating through the frontier towns 267 00:18:06,440 --> 00:18:10,960 Speaker 1: were instrumental in casting all grizzlies as wrathful monsters to 268 00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:14,280 Speaker 1: be hunted down and shot to death at every opportunity. 269 00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:18,080 Speaker 1: Back in nineteen ninety one, the writers Tim Clark and 270 00:18:18,160 --> 00:18:21,679 Speaker 1: Denise Casey compile the volume they titled Tales of the 271 00:18:21,680 --> 00:18:25,840 Speaker 1: Grizzly thirty nine Stories of Grizzly Bear Encounters in the Wilderness, 272 00:18:26,040 --> 00:18:29,639 Speaker 1: which chronicle grizzly human encounters in the Northern Rocky Mountains 273 00:18:29,680 --> 00:18:33,399 Speaker 1: from eighteen oh four through nineteen twenty nine. They charted 274 00:18:33,480 --> 00:18:36,680 Speaker 1: five distinct periods in the evolution of the American relationship 275 00:18:36,720 --> 00:18:41,000 Speaker 1: with grizzly bears. First, a Native American period, when bears 276 00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:45,879 Speaker 1: were mythic figures, teachers of medicines, helpers, a species whose 277 00:18:45,880 --> 00:18:51,600 Speaker 1: physiological similarity to humans offered the possibility for transmigration in 278 00:18:51,760 --> 00:18:55,680 Speaker 1: both directions, a relationship with nature Clark and Casey assert 279 00:18:55,840 --> 00:19:00,000 Speaker 1: that would have been almost incomprehensible to most modern Americas. 280 00:19:00,960 --> 00:19:02,480 Speaker 2: Number Two, there was an. 281 00:19:02,480 --> 00:19:07,199 Speaker 1: Expiration fur trade period, exemplified by the grizzly encounters of 282 00:19:07,280 --> 00:19:11,040 Speaker 1: Lewis and Clark, Hugh Glass, and Jacob Fowler, which created 283 00:19:11,040 --> 00:19:14,760 Speaker 1: the initial impressions of grizzlies as the horrible bear. The 284 00:19:14,840 --> 00:19:18,879 Speaker 1: wilderness fiend that offered Americans a reminder of the dangers 285 00:19:18,920 --> 00:19:24,480 Speaker 1: of uncontrolled, chaotic nature that the country must civilize. Periods 286 00:19:24,520 --> 00:19:26,960 Speaker 1: three and four in this chronology are the periods of 287 00:19:27,080 --> 00:19:31,040 Speaker 1: conquest and settlement, when homesteaders resolved that it was a 288 00:19:31,160 --> 00:19:35,919 Speaker 1: Christian duty to eradicate grizzlies and other formidable wildlife in 289 00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:40,240 Speaker 1: order to liberate wilderness for God and civilization. During this phase, 290 00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:43,600 Speaker 1: tens of thousands of grizzly bears were shot on sight, 291 00:19:43,920 --> 00:19:46,080 Speaker 1: and not just to wipe them off the planes for 292 00:19:46,119 --> 00:19:47,000 Speaker 1: the arrival. 293 00:19:46,720 --> 00:19:48,040 Speaker 2: Of the livestock industry. 294 00:19:48,600 --> 00:19:52,680 Speaker 1: Settlers killed four hundred and twenty three grizzlies in the 295 00:19:52,680 --> 00:19:57,320 Speaker 1: North Cascade Mountains alone just between eighteen forty six and 296 00:19:57,440 --> 00:20:01,080 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty one. Then in the Earth only twentieth century, 297 00:20:01,280 --> 00:20:05,080 Speaker 1: the Great American War on Grizzly Bears featured an alliance 298 00:20:05,119 --> 00:20:09,880 Speaker 1: between livestock interest and the US Biological Survey, whose hunters 299 00:20:09,920 --> 00:20:14,720 Speaker 1: made official the war on wolves, coyotes, lions, and bears, 300 00:20:14,920 --> 00:20:18,800 Speaker 1: in the process creating an early federal subsidy for the 301 00:20:18,920 --> 00:20:24,360 Speaker 1: ranching industry in the West. That same progressive era witnessed 302 00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:28,080 Speaker 1: the official rise of sport hunting and its replacement of 303 00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:32,080 Speaker 1: market hunting, which now had a black eye. Sport hunters 304 00:20:32,119 --> 00:20:36,280 Speaker 1: took to heart President Theodore Roosevelt's advice that the most 305 00:20:36,480 --> 00:20:40,240 Speaker 1: thrilling moments of an American hunter's life are those in which, 306 00:20:40,440 --> 00:20:43,719 Speaker 1: with every sense on the alert, and with nerves strung 307 00:20:43,800 --> 00:20:47,960 Speaker 1: to the highest point, he is following alone the fresh 308 00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:53,800 Speaker 1: and bloody footprints of an angered grizzly. For hunters, eliminating 309 00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:57,879 Speaker 1: bad animals like predators made sense, not just in terms 310 00:20:57,880 --> 00:21:01,320 Speaker 1: of growing the numbers of huntable elk and deer. Going 311 00:21:01,359 --> 00:21:06,560 Speaker 1: after grizzlies also had become the ultimate nostalgic capture of 312 00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:11,200 Speaker 1: the vanishing frontier, the Hudder's version of a Frederick Remington 313 00:21:11,600 --> 00:21:15,919 Speaker 1: or Charlie Russell painting, As Roosevelt put it, telling Lee, 314 00:21:16,440 --> 00:21:20,720 Speaker 1: no other triumph of American hunting can compare with the 315 00:21:20,840 --> 00:21:24,680 Speaker 1: victory to be thus gained, which in an age when 316 00:21:24,720 --> 00:21:28,719 Speaker 1: some Western states are thinking anew about grizzly bear hunts 317 00:21:29,080 --> 00:21:31,760 Speaker 1: if and when grizzly bears are no longer on the 318 00:21:31,880 --> 00:21:35,600 Speaker 1: endangered species list and their management is given to the states, 319 00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:40,280 Speaker 1: makes the following story worth telling. The Earl of Dunraven, 320 00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:45,560 Speaker 1: his full name was Wyndham. Thomas Wyndham Quinn, fourth Earl 321 00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:49,880 Speaker 1: of Dunraven, spent much of his life in elite English circles, 322 00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:55,600 Speaker 1: but he yearned to hunt grizzlies. Born to privilege, Dunraven 323 00:21:55,760 --> 00:22:00,400 Speaker 1: had fellow aristocrats and politicians as friends. He also consorted 324 00:22:00,440 --> 00:22:04,800 Speaker 1: with painters and actors, even scientists. His circle made up 325 00:22:04,840 --> 00:22:08,760 Speaker 1: the audience at the famous evolution debate at Oxford in 326 00:22:08,840 --> 00:22:13,760 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty when Robert Fitzroy, formerly the captain of the 327 00:22:13,960 --> 00:22:19,720 Speaker 1: HMS Beagle, stood up and, waiving his Bible, exclaimed of Darwin, 328 00:22:20,200 --> 00:22:23,200 Speaker 1: had I known then what I know now, I would 329 00:22:23,240 --> 00:22:27,320 Speaker 1: not have taken him aboard. While Darwin and evolution were 330 00:22:27,359 --> 00:22:30,719 Speaker 1: the talk of the scientific world, the American West and 331 00:22:30,800 --> 00:22:36,760 Speaker 1: its animals provided a classic elitist recreational escape for Dunraven. 332 00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:41,200 Speaker 1: Hunting first in Colorado and Nebraska, Dunraven was soon drawn 333 00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:46,440 Speaker 1: north by eye popping stories of wildlife and primeval abundance 334 00:22:46,520 --> 00:22:50,800 Speaker 1: in Montana. Eventually he found the Butler Brothers in the 335 00:22:50,840 --> 00:22:55,359 Speaker 1: Paradise Valley and hired them as guides. Colonials in East 336 00:22:55,400 --> 00:22:59,119 Speaker 1: Africa claim one couldn't go native without taking on a lion, 337 00:22:59,520 --> 00:23:04,119 Speaker 1: which in America, Dunraven translated into a grizzly bear hunt 338 00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:09,160 Speaker 1: word was if left alone, a grizzly rarely engaged humans, 339 00:23:09,400 --> 00:23:12,919 Speaker 1: but if attacked, the bears tended to respond in kind 340 00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:17,880 Speaker 1: and with unparalleled vigor. Doun Raven's guides dutifully put him 341 00:23:17,920 --> 00:23:20,800 Speaker 1: on to a grizzly, but when he fired and the 342 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:27,200 Speaker 1: enraged animal world to locate its tormentor, the nobleman's bravado collapsed. 343 00:23:28,280 --> 00:23:32,480 Speaker 1: I never heard any beasts roar like it before, and 344 00:23:32,520 --> 00:23:36,359 Speaker 1: I hope I never may again, he shakily wrote in 345 00:23:36,400 --> 00:23:41,120 Speaker 1: his journal. It was the most awful noise you can imagine. 346 00:23:41,160 --> 00:23:44,520 Speaker 1: The nobleman's dreamed off about with America's King of Beasts 347 00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:48,040 Speaker 1: didn't go quite as he had imagined, as the wounded 348 00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:52,600 Speaker 1: bears searched for him and battled its final blood drenched breaths. 349 00:23:53,080 --> 00:23:56,360 Speaker 1: I lay on the ground as flat by God as 350 00:23:56,400 --> 00:24:02,159 Speaker 1: a flapjack, he admitted. As grizzly ms dropped drastically in 351 00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:06,560 Speaker 1: the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, an interesting phenomenon 352 00:24:06,680 --> 00:24:09,760 Speaker 1: emerged in the way Americans began to perceive animals like 353 00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:14,439 Speaker 1: grizzly bears and gray wolves as animal numbers dwindled, or 354 00:24:14,480 --> 00:24:19,919 Speaker 1: as the persecution amplified, ranchers, sportsmen and bureau hunters began 355 00:24:20,080 --> 00:24:25,680 Speaker 1: to individualize particular animals and give them their own personalities 356 00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:29,959 Speaker 1: and names. Once so numerous out on the plains, grizzlies, 357 00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:34,040 Speaker 1: elk and other classic Great Plain species had now fled 358 00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:37,240 Speaker 1: to the mountains, so these last bears are. 359 00:24:37,240 --> 00:24:39,800 Speaker 2: Always secreted away up in the peaks. 360 00:24:40,760 --> 00:24:45,400 Speaker 1: Among grizzlies, there was the Wyoming bear known as Bigfoot Wallace. 361 00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:49,040 Speaker 1: There was a notorious California grizzly of the Sierra Nevada 362 00:24:49,119 --> 00:24:53,800 Speaker 1: called Clubfoot, a Colorado grizzly named Old Mose, a grizzly 363 00:24:53,840 --> 00:24:57,160 Speaker 1: in Idaho known as Old Ephraim, and a gray bull 364 00:24:57,280 --> 00:25:02,040 Speaker 1: river bear Wyoming Ranchers named war whose life story in 365 00:25:02,200 --> 00:25:07,159 Speaker 1: much fictionalized form the nature writer Ernest Thompson Seaton told 366 00:25:07,320 --> 00:25:11,480 Speaker 1: in his nineteen hundred book The Biography of a Grizzly. 367 00:25:12,840 --> 00:25:17,840 Speaker 1: This individualization of grizzly's was an interesting development. It rested 368 00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:20,680 Speaker 1: on a sentiment clearly widespread in America at the turn 369 00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:24,399 Speaker 1: of the century, which had its sources in Darwinian thought. 370 00:25:24,640 --> 00:25:28,920 Speaker 1: As popularized by the natural history writers of the day, Seaton, 371 00:25:29,400 --> 00:25:34,159 Speaker 1: Jack London, Enos Mills, and John Muir were all struggling 372 00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:38,520 Speaker 1: to erase the Tennyson imagery of a Darwinian world as 373 00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:42,800 Speaker 1: Nature read in Tooth and Claw. The literary devices they 374 00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:49,040 Speaker 1: used the personification of animals, an emphasis on animal individuality, cooperation, 375 00:25:49,359 --> 00:25:52,880 Speaker 1: intelligence and reasoning, and the device of telling their stories 376 00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:56,120 Speaker 1: from the point of view of the animals themselves, as 377 00:25:56,160 --> 00:26:00,000 Speaker 1: in London's Call of the Wild Are James Oliver Kerry 378 00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:03,800 Speaker 1: Woods the Grizzly King? We're designed to affect a more 379 00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:09,680 Speaker 1: favorable regard for animals. Humanitarian animal reformers at the turn 380 00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:13,680 Speaker 1: of the century even discuss the possibility that animals might 381 00:26:13,800 --> 00:26:18,600 Speaker 1: have souls, a specialty religion reserved only for humans. 382 00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:22,000 Speaker 2: As H. W. Boynton, a critic. 383 00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:25,679 Speaker 1: Following these trends, summarized, the message for a world distressed 384 00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:29,240 Speaker 1: by the implications of Darwinism seem to be, if we 385 00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:32,199 Speaker 1: are only a little higher than the dog, we may 386 00:26:32,280 --> 00:26:35,000 Speaker 1: as well make the dog out to be as fine 387 00:26:35,040 --> 00:26:40,080 Speaker 1: a fellow as possible. Despite the sympathetic but dubious view 388 00:26:40,280 --> 00:26:44,560 Speaker 1: of Grizzly's Seaton presented in his The Biography of a Grizzly, 389 00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:48,040 Speaker 1: with so many other bears killed, and his mountains filling 390 00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:52,639 Speaker 1: with ranchers and tourists. Aging bear Matitsi wabb takes his 391 00:26:52,760 --> 00:26:56,680 Speaker 1: own life, or in Kerwood's The Grizzly King, where the 392 00:26:56,880 --> 00:27:01,600 Speaker 1: wounded but peace loving grizzly lets his hunt antagonists walk 393 00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:06,480 Speaker 1: away unharmed. The nature writers of the age weren't entirely wrong. 394 00:27:07,520 --> 00:27:11,840 Speaker 1: A century later, we know that other animals are certainly individuals, 395 00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:17,639 Speaker 1: that almost all higher species hand down culture, another practice 396 00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:21,560 Speaker 1: we once thought hours alone equally to the point of 397 00:27:21,600 --> 00:27:24,359 Speaker 1: the grizzlies history. Since the time of Lewis and Clark, 398 00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:28,280 Speaker 1: the real wob met a rather different end than Seaton 399 00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:31,800 Speaker 1: gave him. He was shot by a rancher, the fourth 400 00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:34,560 Speaker 1: grizzly the hunter had killed that day. 401 00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:36,720 Speaker 2: Which is what we did everywhere. 402 00:27:37,359 --> 00:27:43,119 Speaker 1: Ranchers, sport hunters, and paid federal hunters steadily extirpated grizzlies 403 00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:46,560 Speaker 1: across the West. For many of the shooters a right 404 00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:51,480 Speaker 1: of masculinity. A story in Harper's Magazine in eighteen sixty 405 00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:56,480 Speaker 1: one claimed that the ladies much admired a child up man. 406 00:27:57,880 --> 00:28:02,080 Speaker 1: These largest of our carnivores struck many as too dangerous 407 00:28:02,119 --> 00:28:06,000 Speaker 1: to exist, and in America modeled on Europe, Everyone tended 408 00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:09,240 Speaker 1: to agree that the huge bears needed to go from 409 00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:14,680 Speaker 1: all settled country. Naturalists Elliott Cows, who collected at grizzly 410 00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:17,960 Speaker 1: in the San Francisco Mountains of Arizona and also had 411 00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:23,160 Speaker 1: extensive experience farther north, believed grizzlies were originally most numerous 412 00:28:23,200 --> 00:28:27,280 Speaker 1: of all in the Southwest. The southern Rocky Mountains and 413 00:28:27,320 --> 00:28:31,720 Speaker 1: the Ranges of California seemed to be particularly the home 414 00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:36,119 Speaker 1: of the huge grizzly, he wrote, which becomes less numerous 415 00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:36,879 Speaker 1: farther north. 416 00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:38,960 Speaker 2: There were good reasons for that. 417 00:28:39,640 --> 00:28:43,440 Speaker 1: Grizzlies in California, where the bears fed on foods from 418 00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:47,640 Speaker 1: a profusion of habitats included carrion washed ashore on the 419 00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:51,880 Speaker 1: Pacific coasts, and they did not hibernate as elsewhere in 420 00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:56,080 Speaker 1: the Southwest. Their numbers shot up dramatically with the carrion 421 00:28:56,240 --> 00:29:01,560 Speaker 1: possibilities from Spanish introduced cattle and horses. An early American 422 00:29:01,600 --> 00:29:06,320 Speaker 1: pioneer in today's Napa Sonoma Wine Country, George Yunt, wrote 423 00:29:06,360 --> 00:29:09,920 Speaker 1: of grizzlies there that it was not unusual to see 424 00:29:10,040 --> 00:29:14,840 Speaker 1: fifty or sixty within twenty four hours. That kind of 425 00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:20,120 Speaker 1: presence terrified people not used to wild America. The grizzly 426 00:29:20,240 --> 00:29:24,960 Speaker 1: sheer size also terrified, especially in California, where the bears 427 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:28,280 Speaker 1: grew as large as Kodiak bears in Alaska, but as 428 00:29:28,400 --> 00:29:32,320 Speaker 1: carrion eaters. The big bears by the twentieth century were 429 00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:36,560 Speaker 1: dying by the thousands from eating poison baits set out 430 00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:40,280 Speaker 1: in the general war on predators. By then, settlers had 431 00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:43,719 Speaker 1: driven grizzlies off the Great Plains and from the open 432 00:29:43,800 --> 00:29:48,080 Speaker 1: country of California, from a vast population of grizzlies that 433 00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:52,080 Speaker 1: only seventy five years before had numbered more than ten thousand, 434 00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:57,200 Speaker 1: The final one of California's totem animals died near Sequoia 435 00:29:57,320 --> 00:30:01,960 Speaker 1: National Park in nineteen twenty two. The last grizzly to 436 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:05,320 Speaker 1: die in Texas in eighteen ninety, was killed by a 437 00:30:05,400 --> 00:30:08,720 Speaker 1: group on a Christian outing in the Davis Mountains. 438 00:30:09,040 --> 00:30:10,640 Speaker 2: The last grizzly in Utah. 439 00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:13,800 Speaker 1: Fell in nineteen twenty three, and the last bears in 440 00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:18,280 Speaker 1: Oregon and New Mexico in nineteen thirty one. Arizona's last 441 00:30:18,320 --> 00:30:21,880 Speaker 1: grizzly died in nineteen thirty five. A hunter shot the 442 00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:26,440 Speaker 1: last of Washington's original grizzlies in the North Cascades in 443 00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:31,680 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty seven. As for Colorado, a state that supposedly 444 00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:35,320 Speaker 1: produced a killing machine of a bear, ranchers claimed the 445 00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:39,640 Speaker 1: grizzly called Old Mose, killed eight hundred cattle and five 446 00:30:39,760 --> 00:30:40,840 Speaker 1: humans in the state. 447 00:30:41,240 --> 00:30:42,840 Speaker 2: Colorado still hosted. 448 00:30:42,520 --> 00:30:46,560 Speaker 1: Bears in its San Juan Mountains well past the nineteen fifties. 449 00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:50,600 Speaker 1: What made it possible for grizzlies to continue to live 450 00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:54,760 Speaker 1: in the Lower forty eight were our grand public lands. 451 00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:58,520 Speaker 1: But in nineteen fifty a national census estimated that from 452 00:30:58,560 --> 00:31:01,240 Speaker 1: a population of fifty six x thousand bears at the 453 00:31:01,280 --> 00:31:04,440 Speaker 1: time of Lewis and Clark, only seven hundred and fifty 454 00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:09,880 Speaker 1: grizzly bears remained alive in the lower contiguous States. Those 455 00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:14,320 Speaker 1: were in two distinct places that, unfortunately for grizzly genetics, 456 00:31:14,360 --> 00:31:18,000 Speaker 1: were two hundred miles of settled country apart, in and 457 00:31:18,080 --> 00:31:21,720 Speaker 1: around Glacier National Park in northwest Montana and in the 458 00:31:21,800 --> 00:31:28,560 Speaker 1: Greater Yellowstone ecosystem in northwest Wyoming. For the past quarter century, 459 00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:31,640 Speaker 1: we have been doing our best to get bears into 460 00:31:31,640 --> 00:31:34,520 Speaker 1: the bitter roots where they might link the populations in 461 00:31:34,560 --> 00:31:39,840 Speaker 1: Glacier and Yellowstone and into the North Cascades again. Grizzly 462 00:31:39,920 --> 00:31:43,680 Speaker 1: populations have been growing in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem and 463 00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:47,240 Speaker 1: along the Rocky Mountain Front, and with bears once again 464 00:31:47,400 --> 00:31:50,640 Speaker 1: making their way out onto the Great Plains Homeland. In 465 00:31:50,680 --> 00:31:55,840 Speaker 1: the twenty twenties, grizzly bear populations are approaching two thousand bears. 466 00:31:56,760 --> 00:32:00,920 Speaker 1: Old West Indian villages full of dogs that once kept 467 00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:05,760 Speaker 1: grizzlies at bay have pointed towards one solution for modern 468 00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:10,880 Speaker 1: human coexistence with bears. If grizzlies come off the endangered 469 00:32:10,920 --> 00:32:14,640 Speaker 1: species list, it might be that hunting seasons or another. 470 00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:19,080 Speaker 1: I'll confess that my own fantasy for the future is 471 00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:23,800 Speaker 1: seeing plains grizzlies out in the American Prairie Reserve, where 472 00:32:23,800 --> 00:32:28,600 Speaker 1: they're going to add an exclamatory flourish to rewilding our 473 00:32:28,680 --> 00:32:32,680 Speaker 1: continental serengetti. But it's still not easy for bears to 474 00:32:32,800 --> 00:32:36,240 Speaker 1: settle in any of those places. A few years ago, 475 00:32:36,400 --> 00:32:39,200 Speaker 1: a group of us spent five days backpacking into the 476 00:32:39,200 --> 00:32:42,800 Speaker 1: Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana. The Bob is a place 477 00:32:42,880 --> 00:32:46,680 Speaker 1: where the blocky limestone ridges of Montana's Rocky Mountain Front 478 00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:50,920 Speaker 1: drop away to the plains yellow grasslands that roll away 479 00:32:51,280 --> 00:32:55,040 Speaker 1: as they always have done, nearly five hundred miles east. 480 00:32:55,800 --> 00:32:58,240 Speaker 1: There had been days of rain before we got into 481 00:32:58,280 --> 00:33:00,520 Speaker 1: the mountains, and within a couple of miles the trail 482 00:33:00,560 --> 00:33:03,360 Speaker 1: had we began to notice not only wolf tracks on 483 00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:06,600 Speaker 1: the trail, but as well the prints of a gigantic 484 00:33:06,640 --> 00:33:09,960 Speaker 1: grizzly bear splayed out in the mud, like impact craters 485 00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:13,960 Speaker 1: on a distant planet. What particularly caught our attention as 486 00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:17,160 Speaker 1: we hiked in was that the bear tracks were headed 487 00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:21,440 Speaker 1: out towards the plains. A week after we got out 488 00:33:21,440 --> 00:33:24,959 Speaker 1: of the mountains back in Missoula, the local paper carried 489 00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:28,360 Speaker 1: a headline that shocked all of us. Later, on the 490 00:33:28,520 --> 00:33:31,160 Speaker 1: very day we had hiked out to our cars, a 491 00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:36,200 Speaker 1: Forest Service ranger had found an immense male grizzly shot 492 00:33:36,320 --> 00:33:39,720 Speaker 1: dead and left to right less than a mile onto 493 00:33:39,720 --> 00:33:43,600 Speaker 1: the plains. It was not just any bear. Biologists and 494 00:33:43,680 --> 00:33:47,240 Speaker 1: rangers had known this particular bear for well over a decade. 495 00:33:47,520 --> 00:33:51,280 Speaker 1: They had named him Maximus because of his extraordinary size. 496 00:33:51,640 --> 00:33:54,200 Speaker 1: He had stood seven and a half feet tall and 497 00:33:54,280 --> 00:33:58,160 Speaker 1: weighed eight hundred pounds. Biologists were certain at the time 498 00:33:58,400 --> 00:34:02,120 Speaker 1: that he was the biggest grizzy and Montana. But what 499 00:34:02,200 --> 00:34:06,560 Speaker 1: most characterized this bear was his remarkably good behavior. He 500 00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:09,120 Speaker 1: was a grizzly that had never gotten in any trouble, 501 00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:12,319 Speaker 1: had left stock alone, had retreated into the woods when 502 00:34:12,360 --> 00:34:16,080 Speaker 1: hikers passed and ignored their camps. But he was heading 503 00:34:16,200 --> 00:34:21,000 Speaker 1: onto the prairie. The grizzies allsion feels for millions of 504 00:34:21,080 --> 00:34:26,920 Speaker 1: years that presumably got him shot. A respectful wild grizzly 505 00:34:27,200 --> 00:34:30,320 Speaker 1: who knew how to live among us deserved a better fate. 506 00:34:39,800 --> 00:34:42,480 Speaker 3: So Dan, we Sydney and I were out deer hunting 507 00:34:42,560 --> 00:34:46,480 Speaker 3: last year and we're out on a piece of property, 508 00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:51,120 Speaker 3: piece of state land adjacent to the American Prairie, and 509 00:34:52,640 --> 00:34:56,279 Speaker 3: she killed a buck and we had the dogs with us, 510 00:34:56,280 --> 00:34:58,080 Speaker 3: so we brought the dogs out while we were cutting 511 00:34:58,080 --> 00:34:59,920 Speaker 3: the buck apart, and all of a sudden, they start barking, 512 00:35:00,560 --> 00:35:02,520 Speaker 3: embarking at something in the trees. 513 00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:03,840 Speaker 2: And my. 514 00:35:05,960 --> 00:35:09,360 Speaker 3: Mind immediately said, well, thank god, we're not in grizzly country, 515 00:35:09,440 --> 00:35:12,719 Speaker 3: because whatever whatever that is, we don't really need to 516 00:35:12,719 --> 00:35:16,920 Speaker 3: worry about it. And then my mind, sort of before 517 00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:19,480 Speaker 3: I was even doing it consciously, my mind just corrected 518 00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:23,479 Speaker 3: itself and it said, no, we're in Grizzly Country. Maybe 519 00:35:23,560 --> 00:35:26,600 Speaker 3: twenty years ago we might not have been in Grizzly Country. 520 00:35:27,960 --> 00:35:32,440 Speaker 3: In twenty twenty four, it's grizzly Country again, And if 521 00:35:32,480 --> 00:35:35,480 Speaker 3: you go back one hundred and fifty years, it's definitely 522 00:35:35,480 --> 00:35:40,400 Speaker 3: grizzly Country. So I'm kind of curious, like grizzly bears, 523 00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:44,680 Speaker 3: for whatever reason, we sort of placed them in these 524 00:35:44,719 --> 00:35:49,720 Speaker 3: two very distinct landscapes in Montana. But the historical record 525 00:35:49,800 --> 00:35:54,880 Speaker 3: shows that Grizzly Country is much larger than you'd initially assume. 526 00:35:56,560 --> 00:36:01,600 Speaker 1: I think one of the exciting parts of the grizzly 527 00:36:01,760 --> 00:36:06,320 Speaker 1: story in the West is the fact that they were 528 00:36:07,080 --> 00:36:12,120 Speaker 1: an open country species. And the reason that's exciting to 529 00:36:12,160 --> 00:36:14,200 Speaker 1: me is because you know, like most of us, I 530 00:36:14,440 --> 00:36:19,480 Speaker 1: have grown up knowing. Okay, So what distinguishes the Northern 531 00:36:19,560 --> 00:36:21,520 Speaker 1: Rockies from the rest of the West is that it 532 00:36:21,640 --> 00:36:25,600 Speaker 1: still has grizzly bears. But the bears are all secreted 533 00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:31,160 Speaker 1: away in the mountains. They're in Glacier there on the 534 00:36:31,200 --> 00:36:35,960 Speaker 1: Yellowstone Plateau, they're up in the Bob Marshall Country. But 535 00:36:37,920 --> 00:36:45,080 Speaker 1: it's fun to know that grizzlies originally were way out 536 00:36:45,520 --> 00:36:48,160 Speaker 1: onto the Great Plains. I mean, all of those encounters 537 00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:52,000 Speaker 1: that Lewis and Clark had with all of their bears, 538 00:36:52,040 --> 00:36:54,799 Speaker 1: they're thirty seven or thirty eight bears they encountered. I mean, 539 00:36:54,840 --> 00:36:57,880 Speaker 1: they were all out on the high plains, and that 540 00:36:58,080 --> 00:37:02,440 Speaker 1: was the case up in till really probably the eighteen 541 00:37:03,080 --> 00:37:06,720 Speaker 1: seventies or eighteen eighties. I mean, George Armstrong Cusher killed 542 00:37:06,719 --> 00:37:10,440 Speaker 1: a grizzly bear out on the plains too, And so 543 00:37:12,520 --> 00:37:17,319 Speaker 1: it's exciting to think that while we drove them back 544 00:37:17,360 --> 00:37:24,040 Speaker 1: into the recesses of the mountains, that today they're starting 545 00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:27,120 Speaker 1: to starting to return. I mean, and I have had 546 00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:31,760 Speaker 1: conversations with people here just in the last few weeks 547 00:37:31,800 --> 00:37:37,400 Speaker 1: that make me know pretty convincingly that there are bears 548 00:37:38,120 --> 00:37:42,920 Speaker 1: well out onto the Montana Plains now out getting out 549 00:37:42,960 --> 00:37:46,279 Speaker 1: into the bad Lands country and getting close to American 550 00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:51,680 Speaker 1: prairie lands. And so that's an exciting thing to me 551 00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:58,040 Speaker 1: to see a species as charismatic, as you know, as 552 00:37:58,280 --> 00:38:03,440 Speaker 1: moving because of danger that their presence implies as grizzly 553 00:38:03,480 --> 00:38:07,880 Speaker 1: bears be out in the bigger world again, out in 554 00:38:07,920 --> 00:38:09,040 Speaker 1: their original range. 555 00:38:09,840 --> 00:38:11,040 Speaker 2: Yeah. I think. 556 00:38:12,719 --> 00:38:16,439 Speaker 3: This sort of pairs nicely with another thread in this 557 00:38:16,640 --> 00:38:20,600 Speaker 3: in this chapter where you're talking about the program to 558 00:38:20,640 --> 00:38:23,520 Speaker 3: reintroduce or the attempt to reintroduce grizzly bears into the 559 00:38:23,520 --> 00:38:26,839 Speaker 3: bitter Root. And if you talk to anybody in sort 560 00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:30,400 Speaker 3: of the Greater Misilla area these days, there are grizzlies 561 00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:33,520 Speaker 3: that make their way through the bitter Root, and the 562 00:38:33,560 --> 00:38:36,520 Speaker 3: biologists are convinced that they're going to end up there 563 00:38:37,160 --> 00:38:40,759 Speaker 3: anyway without a relocation program like a you know, a 564 00:38:40,800 --> 00:38:44,840 Speaker 3: resident population. And so it's one of these stories where 565 00:38:47,800 --> 00:38:50,240 Speaker 3: I think in some ways, like when you think about wolves, 566 00:38:50,680 --> 00:38:54,680 Speaker 3: reintroduction is very controversial, but the wolves are moving there 567 00:38:54,680 --> 00:38:59,279 Speaker 3: on their own, and the grizzly bear story, reintroduction is 568 00:38:59,280 --> 00:39:02,920 Speaker 3: so unthinkable for a lot of people that the bears 569 00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:04,959 Speaker 3: are actually being left to do it on their own. 570 00:39:06,160 --> 00:39:06,960 Speaker 2: Yeah. 571 00:39:07,040 --> 00:39:10,680 Speaker 1: So when I was living in the bitter Root, of 572 00:39:10,719 --> 00:39:15,719 Speaker 1: course I did for more than fifteen years, there were 573 00:39:15,719 --> 00:39:19,759 Speaker 1: at least three different times at least three different times 574 00:39:19,760 --> 00:39:23,799 Speaker 1: that I was aware of where bears appeared. And I 575 00:39:23,920 --> 00:39:26,520 Speaker 1: was on the Sapphire Mountain side of the valley, on 576 00:39:26,560 --> 00:39:28,959 Speaker 1: the east side of the valley, and bears, that's where 577 00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:32,000 Speaker 1: the bears were coming in. They were coming in from 578 00:39:32,120 --> 00:39:35,759 Speaker 1: that side from the Sapphires and getting down into the 579 00:39:35,920 --> 00:39:39,920 Speaker 1: edges of the valley itself. I mean they're probably no 580 00:39:39,960 --> 00:39:42,279 Speaker 1: doubt were bears over on the Bitter Root side too, 581 00:39:42,360 --> 00:39:45,759 Speaker 1: doing the same thing. But I think we seem to 582 00:39:45,760 --> 00:39:48,920 Speaker 1: be most aware of the ones that were occasionally coming 583 00:39:48,960 --> 00:39:52,480 Speaker 1: down into the east side of the valley, so they 584 00:39:52,520 --> 00:39:54,640 Speaker 1: were colonizing. I mean, they're going to do the same 585 00:39:54,680 --> 00:39:56,200 Speaker 1: There's no question they're going to do the same thing 586 00:39:56,200 --> 00:39:59,880 Speaker 1: that the bears are doing going out onto the Great Plains. 587 00:40:00,360 --> 00:40:02,319 Speaker 1: Now they're going to do it on their own. 588 00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:04,719 Speaker 2: But when we. 589 00:40:05,080 --> 00:40:08,480 Speaker 1: Actually attempted, and we got within about two or three 590 00:40:08,480 --> 00:40:12,239 Speaker 1: months of actually releasing doing hard releases of grizzlies over 591 00:40:12,320 --> 00:40:14,799 Speaker 1: on the Bitterroot side of the valley in about two 592 00:40:14,840 --> 00:40:19,000 Speaker 1: thousand and one or so. When that was happening, I 593 00:40:19,040 --> 00:40:24,040 Speaker 1: still very much remember that at least a third of 594 00:40:24,120 --> 00:40:29,960 Speaker 1: the automobiles in re Valley County, Montana had no Grizzly 595 00:40:30,239 --> 00:40:34,759 Speaker 1: introduction bumper stickers on the back of their muddy pickups 596 00:40:34,800 --> 00:40:39,919 Speaker 1: and their old Volvos and things. There was a very 597 00:40:40,280 --> 00:40:46,360 Speaker 1: definite kind of incomprehension that having managed to make the 598 00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:49,200 Speaker 1: Bitter Root Valley Grizzly Bear free, at some point in 599 00:40:49,239 --> 00:40:51,920 Speaker 1: our history that we actually were considering the idea of 600 00:40:51,960 --> 00:40:55,000 Speaker 1: reintroducing grizzlies to that part of the world. And I 601 00:40:55,120 --> 00:41:00,040 Speaker 1: you know, there's no question that living with grizzly this 602 00:41:00,239 --> 00:41:02,680 Speaker 1: is a different thing. It's a different thing than living 603 00:41:02,760 --> 00:41:08,680 Speaker 1: with wolves. Grizzly bears are are unpredictable and and you 604 00:41:08,840 --> 00:41:12,319 Speaker 1: have to kind of be aware all the time when 605 00:41:12,360 --> 00:41:15,280 Speaker 1: you're in grizzly country that you have to make noise, 606 00:41:15,360 --> 00:41:17,040 Speaker 1: and you have to make sure that you don't come 607 00:41:17,440 --> 00:41:19,680 Speaker 1: up on them and surprise them, and you have to 608 00:41:19,680 --> 00:41:22,640 Speaker 1: be on the lookout, in particular of course for sows 609 00:41:22,719 --> 00:41:26,720 Speaker 1: with cubs, and so it's a it raises the level 610 00:41:27,239 --> 00:41:32,239 Speaker 1: of kind of awareness of being in the world to 611 00:41:32,440 --> 00:41:35,200 Speaker 1: a degree that I think a lot of modern people 612 00:41:35,400 --> 00:41:40,160 Speaker 1: don't want to do. I found it exciting. I mean, 613 00:41:40,200 --> 00:41:45,080 Speaker 1: the grizzly bears that I encountered, I mean it was 614 00:41:45,239 --> 00:41:47,720 Speaker 1: it was always an exciting thing, and I was always 615 00:41:47,760 --> 00:41:54,080 Speaker 1: really careful about how I did it. But I can 616 00:41:54,160 --> 00:41:57,240 Speaker 1: understand that, you know, there are people who are pretty 617 00:41:57,320 --> 00:41:59,720 Speaker 1: freaked out about the idea of having grizzlies around again. 618 00:42:00,560 --> 00:42:03,439 Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's another point that comes up in this 619 00:42:03,920 --> 00:42:09,640 Speaker 3: in this chapter is there's this psychology of of grizzly 620 00:42:09,680 --> 00:42:13,240 Speaker 3: bears and people. And one of the things that when 621 00:42:13,280 --> 00:42:15,600 Speaker 3: Steve and I were working on the Mountain Man audiobook 622 00:42:17,360 --> 00:42:20,040 Speaker 3: and you read their account you read journals, or you 623 00:42:20,080 --> 00:42:23,440 Speaker 3: read memoirs, or you read letters, the grizzly is this 624 00:42:23,560 --> 00:42:30,480 Speaker 3: looming figure at every turn, and and then you start 625 00:42:30,520 --> 00:42:34,400 Speaker 3: to read more deeply and try to figure out, well, 626 00:42:34,640 --> 00:42:37,040 Speaker 3: how who who was actually attacked by a gree How 627 00:42:37,080 --> 00:42:40,920 Speaker 3: many And there's only a handful. I think, like I'm 628 00:42:40,960 --> 00:42:43,040 Speaker 3: trying to remember if it was three or eight mountain 629 00:42:43,080 --> 00:42:46,160 Speaker 3: men that were actually killed by grizzly bears. It's single digits. 630 00:42:46,200 --> 00:42:49,839 Speaker 3: But you can't read an account without if you if 631 00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:52,720 Speaker 3: you took them at their at face value, the grizzly 632 00:42:52,760 --> 00:42:57,080 Speaker 3: bear was lurking around every corner, and and you know 633 00:42:57,080 --> 00:43:00,520 Speaker 3: they're only surviving these grizzly encounters by the great God. 634 00:43:01,320 --> 00:43:01,759 Speaker 2: Yeah, I know. 635 00:43:01,880 --> 00:43:04,000 Speaker 1: It feels like that when you read those accounts, and 636 00:43:04,360 --> 00:43:07,160 Speaker 1: there's certainly you know, and it's like anything. I mean, 637 00:43:07,160 --> 00:43:13,759 Speaker 1: we do the same thing today with murder statistics in cities. 638 00:43:14,239 --> 00:43:17,920 Speaker 1: All you need is one example, and everybody has kind 639 00:43:17,920 --> 00:43:20,439 Speaker 1: of freaked out for months after that. And I think 640 00:43:20,520 --> 00:43:22,799 Speaker 1: the grizzly encounters in the West were a little bit 641 00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:25,360 Speaker 1: like that. They were actually a few and far between. 642 00:43:25,880 --> 00:43:28,319 Speaker 1: And one of the things that has always intrigued me 643 00:43:28,400 --> 00:43:34,879 Speaker 1: is by reading closely into these accounts and people's encounters 644 00:43:34,960 --> 00:43:40,200 Speaker 1: with bears, is that if you didn't happen up on 645 00:43:40,280 --> 00:43:45,600 Speaker 1: them and surprise them, you almost had to intentionally provoke 646 00:43:45,640 --> 00:43:48,719 Speaker 1: a grizzly bear to get it to do something that 647 00:43:48,840 --> 00:43:52,560 Speaker 1: was dangerous to humans. I mean, there are so many instances, 648 00:43:52,600 --> 00:43:54,600 Speaker 1: for example in the Lewis and Clark journals, which I 649 00:43:54,640 --> 00:43:57,960 Speaker 1: talked about in an earlier episode of the podcast, where 650 00:43:58,280 --> 00:44:00,880 Speaker 1: I mean the bears were just you know, grazing on 651 00:44:01,040 --> 00:44:04,680 Speaker 1: spring grass and paying no attention to these guys going by, 652 00:44:04,760 --> 00:44:07,879 Speaker 1: but they had a kind of a you know, an 653 00:44:07,920 --> 00:44:11,560 Speaker 1: inability to pass up the opportunity to go out and 654 00:44:11,680 --> 00:44:14,840 Speaker 1: shoot one. And one of the things that I tried 655 00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:18,320 Speaker 1: to make clear from the stories that I read, particularly 656 00:44:18,320 --> 00:44:22,680 Speaker 1: that Jacob Fowler story and the Earl of Dunravens story too, 657 00:44:23,440 --> 00:44:27,000 Speaker 1: when that I tell in this particular episode is the 658 00:44:27,040 --> 00:44:31,759 Speaker 1: bears were kind of in this situation where and as 659 00:44:31,800 --> 00:44:36,680 Speaker 1: I say in the in the script for this particular episode, 660 00:44:36,760 --> 00:44:40,640 Speaker 1: I've seen this have read about it and also even 661 00:44:40,680 --> 00:44:45,800 Speaker 1: seen video of it. Among lions in Africa, they will 662 00:44:46,320 --> 00:44:50,120 Speaker 1: very quickly recognize who among a group of humans has 663 00:44:50,160 --> 00:44:53,279 Speaker 1: attacked them, and that's who they go after. They will 664 00:44:53,280 --> 00:44:57,560 Speaker 1: ignore everybody else and go specifically after the person who 665 00:44:57,560 --> 00:45:01,799 Speaker 1: had fired a shot at them or you know, more 666 00:45:02,040 --> 00:45:06,640 Speaker 1: egregiously hit them, and man, when that happens, the bears 667 00:45:06,680 --> 00:45:09,799 Speaker 1: are just kind of single minded in their focus. It's 668 00:45:09,800 --> 00:45:11,839 Speaker 1: one of the things that has always just kind of 669 00:45:12,200 --> 00:45:15,280 Speaker 1: given me a little bit of chill about that Jacob 670 00:45:15,360 --> 00:45:18,839 Speaker 1: Fowler story that I tell, and this one is, I mean, 671 00:45:18,920 --> 00:45:21,600 Speaker 1: there were like thirty five people in that party, and 672 00:45:21,640 --> 00:45:24,439 Speaker 1: that bear was determined to get one guy, the guy 673 00:45:24,520 --> 00:45:28,319 Speaker 1: that it sounds pretty definitively as if he's the one 674 00:45:28,320 --> 00:45:30,400 Speaker 1: who saw the bear first and shot it, and the 675 00:45:30,400 --> 00:45:32,719 Speaker 1: bear paid no attention to anybody else, just went after 676 00:45:32,800 --> 00:45:34,440 Speaker 1: him and got him. 677 00:45:34,719 --> 00:45:35,359 Speaker 2: And I think that. 678 00:45:37,080 --> 00:45:40,160 Speaker 3: To me, that sort of connects with this idea of 679 00:45:40,280 --> 00:45:47,000 Speaker 3: bears being like very individual animals with specific personalities, and 680 00:45:47,040 --> 00:45:50,239 Speaker 3: you get into that when you look at much later 681 00:45:50,360 --> 00:45:55,000 Speaker 3: in the era, when there's surviving grizzlies on these landscapes, 682 00:45:55,040 --> 00:46:00,000 Speaker 3: but people very easily give them names and assign them 683 00:46:00,080 --> 00:46:02,799 Speaker 3: personalities and assign them all these characteristics in a way 684 00:46:02,800 --> 00:46:06,160 Speaker 3: that it's almost unimaginable for us to do with like 685 00:46:06,200 --> 00:46:07,920 Speaker 3: a white tailed deer or something like that. 686 00:46:09,160 --> 00:46:15,120 Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, you know, I think we have difficulty 687 00:46:15,400 --> 00:46:21,120 Speaker 1: doing the Bambi thing. It's pretty evident though, and I'll 688 00:46:21,160 --> 00:46:24,200 Speaker 1: have a casion to talk about this a couple more 689 00:46:24,239 --> 00:46:27,560 Speaker 1: times in other episodes of the podcast. It's pretty evident 690 00:46:27,680 --> 00:46:32,120 Speaker 1: that we did this with bears, we did it with wolves. 691 00:46:32,680 --> 00:46:35,600 Speaker 1: I mean, particularly when you get down to the last 692 00:46:35,640 --> 00:46:38,720 Speaker 1: animals that are out there, and that's when people begin 693 00:46:38,880 --> 00:46:43,399 Speaker 1: to assign particular individual qualities to these animals. I mean, 694 00:46:43,440 --> 00:46:46,239 Speaker 1: it may be that it's more difficult to do to 695 00:46:46,440 --> 00:46:49,960 Speaker 1: a herd animal like a bison, or animals that exist 696 00:46:49,960 --> 00:46:53,959 Speaker 1: in large numbers like deer, than it is to these 697 00:46:54,000 --> 00:46:57,040 Speaker 1: big carnivores which you start out with. First of all, 698 00:46:57,040 --> 00:47:01,319 Speaker 1: there are fewer of them than there are ungulates, and 699 00:47:01,360 --> 00:47:03,960 Speaker 1: particularly I think it becomes easier to give them individual 700 00:47:04,040 --> 00:47:07,879 Speaker 1: names when the numbers begin to drop. But yeah, that's 701 00:47:08,120 --> 00:47:11,560 Speaker 1: you know. And I will say from conversations I've had 702 00:47:11,600 --> 00:47:15,680 Speaker 1: with with contemporary biologists that there is an inclination to 703 00:47:15,800 --> 00:47:18,319 Speaker 1: go in the direction these days of beginning to look 704 00:47:18,360 --> 00:47:22,840 Speaker 1: at animals individually rather than just as a kind of 705 00:47:22,920 --> 00:47:26,759 Speaker 1: a lumping species. That's the sort of wildlife management strategy 706 00:47:26,760 --> 00:47:29,680 Speaker 1: we've had in place for more than a century. But 707 00:47:30,480 --> 00:47:32,400 Speaker 1: there are quite a number of biologists I've talked to 708 00:47:32,440 --> 00:47:35,600 Speaker 1: who are thinking in terms of these days of animals 709 00:47:35,640 --> 00:47:39,319 Speaker 1: as individuals who have their own life experiences and you know, 710 00:47:39,360 --> 00:47:42,640 Speaker 1: and that's something we've kind of I think a lot 711 00:47:42,640 --> 00:47:46,040 Speaker 1: of people have pushed back on since the days of 712 00:47:46,320 --> 00:47:49,839 Speaker 1: Ernest Thompson, Seaton and Jack London and the so called 713 00:47:49,960 --> 00:47:53,680 Speaker 1: nature faker controversy. But maybe we've gone too far. I 714 00:47:53,719 --> 00:47:57,279 Speaker 1: think we've probably gone too far. And I think that, 715 00:47:57,480 --> 00:48:01,200 Speaker 1: I mean, we have no difficulty whatsoever in recognizing our 716 00:48:01,239 --> 00:48:06,840 Speaker 1: companion animals, our dogs, for example, as individuals, and I 717 00:48:06,880 --> 00:48:09,759 Speaker 1: think it's not so big a step for us to 718 00:48:11,920 --> 00:48:15,360 Speaker 1: assume that that's the same thing that is in play 719 00:48:15,440 --> 00:48:18,400 Speaker 1: with you know. I mean, Rick McIntyre is writing the 720 00:48:18,400 --> 00:48:22,680 Speaker 1: biographies of individual wolves and Yellowstone these days, and I 721 00:48:22,680 --> 00:48:24,520 Speaker 1: think it's probably a step in a good direction. 722 00:48:25,400 --> 00:48:27,000 Speaker 3: Well then, thanks, it's always good 723 00:48:27,000 --> 00:48:28,799 Speaker 2: To chat you bet Randal, Thank you man.