Katmai grizzly bear hunting video
:: Monday, October 15th, 2007 @ 3:09:47 pm
:: Tags: Environment
This is terrible. Bear naturalist and friend Brad Josephs sent out an emotional e-mail a couple of weeks ago detailing his experiences documenting bear hunting in the Katmai preserve in Alaska, which is adjacent to Mcneil River and Katmai National Park. We had all just been out there two months before, observing and photographing the same population of bears at close distances.
Below is a link to a video Brad has posted, which shows part of what he witnessed. There didn’t seem to be any “hunt” in what these guys were doing (as is obvious in the video). These grizzly bears have been habituated (in a peaceful way) to human spectators, and getting close to them is easy. Regardless of one’s stance on hunting, walking up to an animal and shooting it for sport is cowardly.
Movie link: http://tinyurl.com/3ybksz KTUU news article: http://www.ktuu.com/global/story.asp?s=7177267
Finally, here’s the public version of what Brad wrote:
I just wanted to update you guys on a hot issue up here. The more gas in the fire the better. I witnessed people doing the unspeakable and I will never forget it. This was a nightmare. I assisted and accompanied Daniel Zatz (local wildlife filmaker www.wildlifeHD.com ), channel 2 anchor Meghan Boldino, a channel news cameraman Daniel Hernandez, and Scott Dickerson- a photographer from Homer to film the bear hunt in the Katmai preserve, adjacent to Mcneil River and katmai national park. They kill about 35 bears during each hunting year (every other year) in this area which serves as the late season feeding grounds for McNeil and katmai bears, mostly sows and cubs. The bears are all habituated to humans- they trust people. This “harvest” or slaughter acts as a population sink for the invaluable bears that constitute the booming bear viewing industry of the Alaska Peninsula. It is also cruel, unethical and inhumane. I think it will be a very powerful piece. It is supposed to air tomorrow night on Channel 2 KTUU anchorage evening news. We spent a day watching and filming the bears before the hunt, illustrating the obvious habituation to people. These were Mcneil, Brooks and Katmai coast bears. Bears were everywhere, mostly sows and cubs and single females- no boars. A beautiful, young blond female hung around our camp, eating berries, fishing and bedding down in the bushes 30 yards from our camp. On the 1st we watched a party of 3 walk up to her as she carried a fish up the bank of the lake. She was oblivious to their presence until, at 20 yards or less, one man let an arrow go into her chest. The guide put two bullets into her before she disappeared into the grass and came our direction. She stood up and looked at us with a look of sheer terror 20 yards away before hiding in the alders. The guide found her and shot her 4 more times. We filmed and watched all this while set up 10 feet from our camp. The bear was killed 50 yards or less away. We then saw them gut her like a catfish, leaving the white carcass to attract more bears for the next day’s hunt. We saw and heard at least half a dozen bears killed on the 1st. As soon as first light came bullets echoed across Narrow Cove and from Battle Creek. My heart sank deeper than ever before. From the air when we left we saw bears fishing and eating berries right next to the ominous tent camps, people were skinning bears, hunting parties stalked the hills, and white bear carcasses were floating in the lake. It was a massacre. It bothered me more than I even could have imagined. We got what we wanted, but I wished I had never seen that. In a way, however, I am thankful, because it has increased my motivation to work for the cause. I got a call from a friend of mine from Iliamna who said he heard that the state troopers were on their way to arrest us, but we took off before they arrived. Our group and actions are under investigation, and we “should be expecting a visit.” We were confronted by the hunters who were aggressive, there were hot words exchanged, and I wasn’t very friendly to them. They want to press charges for hunter harassment which is illegal. Meghan told me last night that the park service told her that commenting on the hunt for the news piece “puts them in an awkward position since we are under investigation.” Everyone wants charges to be pressed because it would bring more attention to the issue, but we did not harass the hunters, and what we did was not illegal. So it should be fine. I have seen a couple plane crashes, and some very disturbing things as an EMT- this, to me, was exponentially worse. Here is the link to the footage- you need quicktime 7. send this letter to as many people as you can. let’s get this exposed. Help, please. http://stream.qtv.apple.com/qtv/SeeMoreDZ/katmai_bear_hunt_videos_ref.mov
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Just reading Brad’s account made me incredibly sad.
And now that I’m done viewing the video … I’m sitting here chewing on my fingernails, eyes wide with horror …
Am I weird to find it disgusting that they call it a “harvest” of the bears?
Is the goal here to make this illegal? I assume that hunting these bears is not illegal now. What’s the process for that and what should we do to help make that happen?
I’m not a big fan of hunting as a sport in general, but I certainly do not see any sport in doing what they did.
This is appalling - I agree with the comment above. Where are the checks and controls going to come from?
We should start a hunt to hunt hunters. They’re spineless cowards. Every time I watch it I feel sick and then angry. What right do we have as human beings to kill for fun?
what… the… hell?
Man these people just kill for the sake of killing something! Those bears certainly do not look threatening, threatening livestock [not that is a good excuse either], or possesses the intent to kill people. But they just shoot and kill them for their hide! This is just as bad as Shark hunting!
The only thing unethical in this entire episode is the behavior by channel 2 news, and their entourage. Yes killing brown bears is sport hunting, however mismanged bear populations are extremely unhealthy to bruins. It is not a suprise to come across a website like this that is completely one sided but really if you want to tell a story tell the hole story. And to Al Vinjamur I wouldn’t let your mouth right checks that you’re a$$ can’t cash.
Sport hunting? What part of “sport” is involved in this style of hunting?
Well it’s not a meat hunt, or subsistence hunt so it would be a sport hunting. Sport hunting meaning for sport, and since most do not consume brown bear meat only the skull and hide is salvaged how should it be classified…. murder????
I too feel that what the so called big game hunters were doing was simply walking up to an animal unabated and shooting it point blank. It’s very big buisness for outfitters like Jim Hamilton from Kodiac and as you saw extremely easy money for very little work. The hunters and their outfitters are more upset about the filming because now they can’t go back and tell everyone about how they walked in the bush for days to track this bear before finally outwitting it!!! The video and still photographs by Scott Dickerson tell the real truth!! The things you can do to bring this nonsense called hunting bears to a hault are: Send an email to your local Congressman to protest the bear hunt on Katmai National Preserve GMU 9C 703. contact every man, women and child you can and pass onto them the video links and the links to Scott Dickerson’s photos and ask them to send a letter to their local Congressman. You can see Scott Dickerson’s photos by Googleing “Katmai Bear Hunt Photos” Write Alaska’s Gonernor Sarah Palin and protest this bear hunt. I applaud you Eric, Danial Zats, Scott Dickerson and the Days for your corageous efforts to bring this story to the front.
I am not a hunter, however I know many who are. I will not even beging to associate with a trophy hunter. The hunters I know and associate with are smart and skilled. They hunt with ethical and moral character, eating only what the kill or donating their meat. I certainly understand and epathise with Al Vinjamur’s anger and disgust at what the people from TrueNorth outfitters and other outfitters did to the bears out on Katmai. I won’t call all hunters spineless cowards just the group slaughtering the bears at point blank. To Ric, this issue isn’t even remotely about animal population management or unhealthy bruins; it’s about simply having enough moral fiber and humanity not to go into a deffensless group of animals still feeding in the streams and slaughter them point blank. The hunters and outfitters will always try to use the same old tired trumph card that we need to control bear populations as long as it allows them free will to shoot an animal under any condition. Most of those angered by this rediculous spectical out on Katmai are not asking for bear hunting to be stopped all together , just in this part of the preserve. I have studied the populations of bears over the last 8 years, I’m sorry to say they’re dropping steadily. The last two years over several trips for extended stays, we did not see many large males. That’s why you see the hunters in the video and still photos shooting the young females. Thats the WHOLE truth.
Alaska public radio did a piece on the bear hunt out on Katmai. go to http://www.akradio.org/archive and click “Mixed Signals” 11-24-2007 segment then scroll to the (7) minute mark, thats where the story begins. It was an excellent piece that included input from a number of people ie:bear biologists, biologist from the Aaska F&G and even a trophy hunter and all feel unanimous that the hunt was extremely unethical and in fact it was’t hunting but killing or harvesting bears and an immoral unethical act. Also go to http://www.myspace.com there are several sites asking for support to get this stopped.
Hey Ric- Yep, murder sounds appropriate. And my a$$ can cash this check
cruel unethical and inhumane. All you tree huggers are the same. Screw off!!!