> This sounds like what I've always believed but let me share a story. An
> eighty-something lady poet in our local writer's group came to our meeting
> one day looking somewhat distressed. In words less blunt than these, she
> said a bear had eaten her son. She wasn't kidding. He lived on a ranch in
a
> remote section of western Canada and had been a bear lover and bear
defender
> all his adult life, always offering advice much like that above. Family
> members who found the remains said the bear had tracked him as he rode on
> horseback for a mile or more before pulling him off his horse, killing him
> and having parts of his head and upper body for dinner. He was unarmed as
> was his custom. I wasn't there, obviously, but I did read a lengthy
account
> in a Canadian newspaper and I have no reason to doubt the story. I don't
> remember what kind of bear it was, but I'm certain she said it was not a
> Grizzly. Apparently some bears don't know the rules.
>
For a bear big enough to pull him off of his horse I'd guess it was a
Kodiak. They are vicious enough too. I have another bear story from a
buddy of mine who was stationed in Alaska for three years. Apparently they
were out in the field on a training mission. They had a company sized
perimeter, and a PFC decided that he wanted to jump into his sleeping bag
while he was out at his observation post instead of pulling watch like he
should have been. So in the dark a bear chomped down on his head and drug
him off. The guy played dead, or maybe he was out....Anyway, the bear
buried him and urinated on him to mark him. I guess bears don't prefer
fresh meat. So this kid, when he woke up and thought it was safe, managed
to claw his way out of the sleeping bag and hole and crawl back to the
company perimeter. Apparently he was really lucky, as his skull had four
puncture wounds through it from the bear's teeth.
Jeff