Comments on: Ghost Grizzlies

By: grafikman

grafikman — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 19:18:03 +0000

I’ve lived in Colorado for 24 years and only run into one bear, but I’m not really a woodsy guy. People increasingly sitting in front of a PC every day just have no clue as to the vast unpopulated territory that is most of North America. We can drive or fly to any other civilized town and just assume everywhere else is the same.

I’d bet a valuable body part there’s a mess of grizzly here in CO.

By: cor2879

cor2879 — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 14:32:59 +0000

Grizzlies in Colorado? Quite frankly I’d be surprised if there weren’t.

By: DWA

DWA — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 22:09:38 +0000

Oh. Griz weren’t just found as far south as AZ. They were once found well into Mexico. There are still murmurings here and there about remnant Mexican grizzlies.

So, why couldn’t they be colonizing the CO mountains from the SOUTH….?

By: DWA

DWA — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 22:03:43 +0000

If there’s one thing I’ll never trust, it’s science telling me never.

Grizzlies in CO wouldn’t surprise me one bit. I know they really range; and I know that biologists aren’t exactly thick on the ground in those hills looking for griz. If you can give credence to the sasquatch, well, this looks pretty garden variety to me.

Sure, I’ll buy it.

By: busterggi

busterggi — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 13:43:06 +0000

Heck, when I was a kid, admitedly a long time ago, there were no black bears in Connecticut. Now there is a resident population of at least a hundred. Same with eastern coyotes.

Some animals are just adapting to human habitation and expanding their ranges.

By: shumway10973

shumway10973 — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 07:56:14 +0000

The hybrid story I will believe totally. It happened here in California between the red wolf and coyotes. In some areas we now have some rather large coyotes.
We also have the king snake, gopher snake and rattlers mating amongst each other (for those who don’t realize the implications here, the CA king snake is the natural predator to the rattler). When species dwindle and are threatened the remaining animals will do whatever is necessary and natural to have offspring. If not hybrid, aren’t there areas of Colorado that only a mountain goat and crazy mountain climbers would even want to go? It is a part of human nature to survey and do a study of an area, and then if nothing is going on like major construction, the area is left alone and forgotten about. Kinda like the line from “Sasquatch”–”This area was last surveyed in the late ’50’s…” Trust me on this one, it doesn’t take long for animals to find the remote areas and for nature to completely change thing around. Animals do not know where the state lines are and they don’t care. If there are grizzlies in the northern rockies, some will come down south as the territories are are being used.

By: Sky King

Sky King — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 06:03:12 +0000

I think there’s a greater chance of BF in Colorado than grizzlies, and I’m pretty sure there’s BF.

Yeah, why not? What the bleep do WE know, anyway?

By: chrisandclauida2

chrisandclauida2 — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 02:54:10 +0000

Grizz populations were as far south as pine top az and across the border in new mexico as late as 1935 with 1979 being the last sighting in southern Colorado.

In the mountains in central western new Mexico central eastern AZ and up to Colorado are extremely isolated and have places where man doesn’t go rarely if ever.

We think there are breeding populations of Sasquatches in these areas, why not grizz?

It would depend on how far they wander while they roam.

We get all kinds of bear and mule deer in and around the phoenix area all year round, searching for food water or just wandering.

I understand that they are different species, but polar bears have been tracked roaming more than a 100 miles looking for mates and food.

The question I’m making is can they go this far? Another thing to think about is that there has been a huge resurgence of the elk population in the 4 corner states. Could this draw them back?

By: MojoHotep

MojoHotep — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 00:34:00 +0000

Back in the early ’90’s, east and a little north of Gunnison, Colorado, a bear ripped the door off of a hunters metal sided camper trailer. It reached inside and pulled him out. It dragged him into the timber and proceded to eat him. Before the hunter died, he shot the bear point blank five times with his .45 long. He “kilt the bear that kilt him” to quote Hatchet Jack from Jeremiah Johnson. This part of the story made the local paper. The DOW came in and found the bear carcass and did DNA testing on it. What didn’t make the papers was the DNA report. It was never released publicly. The DNA report came back black bear/grizzly hybrid. This is a true story as told to me by someone whom was involved and I cannot divulge their identity. But they were a close trusted friend at the time, and still are, even though miles and years seperate us. At the time, this presented a public relations problem in Colorado. You have to understand that Colorado is very, very concerned with its PUBLIC TOURIST IMAGE. You can not trust the DOW in Colorado to tell the straight story absent of agenda. The DOW in Colorado also keeps cougar/human attacks from going public, many, many times. I know of one myself. It is bad for tourism.

I have spent many years of my life in the San Juans and in the The Maroon Bells (not far from the most recent report). I spent way more time than I should have panning gold in the immediate area outside of Delores Colorado where the last known grizz/human confrontation took place back in the late seventies. I have never seen a bear that even left a question in my mind as to its species. But, it is big country and remote. I witnessed alot of wildlife while roaming those mountains, but there were a whole lot of critters I didnt see, that I knew were there. Back in the ’90’s there also were reports of wolverines in the San Juans. But those critters don’t get the press that grizz does.

By: joppa

joppa — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 23:22:21 +0000

My favorite grizzly moment is thankfully in a movie - Jeremiah Johnson. Its worth the rental to hear Will Greer tell Robert Redford all about huntin’ griz.