I haven't been able to verify this story, except for the fact that my husband came home and relayed it to me, as told to him by a local Conservation Officer.This happened somewhere in the Invermere area, (about 4 hours from us) not too long ago.
A Grizzly was about to be released back into the bush by Conservation Officers. They are not to do this alone, for obvious reasons, but I'm assuming this CO had done it many times before, so decided he'd drive up into the bush and release the bear himself.
I'm not sure what type of a cage this bear was in - the ones I've seen around here are large barrel shaped cages - big enough for you and 10 of your friends! One's like this:
Apparently the procedure is to tranquilize the bear while it's in the cage, wait the allotted time for the drug to take effect, then go in and tag the bear, fit a radio collar etc. Once the drug wears off, out wanders the bear into his new surroundings. So that's what the CO does - the bear is tranquilized, and in the officer goes to fit him with whatever tracking method is needed.Now get this - the officer crawls in (it's a good sized cage remember) and is going about his business with this tranquilized bear when the cage door slams shut behind him. There he is, locked inside a cage with a Grizzly bear. For whatever reason, this guy does not have the keys to get out, nor does he have his gun on him. And he has about 20-30 min before this bear wakes up.
Can you even imagine the panic?
Now like I said, I can't officially verify this, but it was a fellow Conservation Officer who told my husband (a Police Officer) this story over coffee the other day.
Apparently this poor trapped soul, soon to be ripped to pieces when this bear awakes, had a pair of nail clippers with him. This was all he had that came even close to being somewhat of a weapon or any help to him.
Guess what he did? He spent (a frantic, I'm sure) 20 minutes cutting and clipping away at the bears jugular vein. He had to clip through a thick layer of fur, and then an even thicker hide, to find the vein.
He did it though. He's alive. I guess when he didn't show up for a meeting that night, colleagues went looking for him, assuming he must have got stuck up in the bush on the muddy Spring roads.
And people say MY husband has a dangerous job!!
9 comments:
Oh. my. gosh.
If this is true, I can only imagine what must have been going through this fool's head when he found himself trapped in a cage with a Grizzly bear. Good thing he had the nail clippers - though when I first read that I thought you were going to say he had cut the bear's claws! Not that it would have done him any good of course!
BLOODY HELL
Damn!
Hi fellow BCer. I remember to take my nail clippers when I am in the bush. We live in a remote are or Northern Cariboo and although I have never seen them I have seen their tracks and we are in a major black bear area. I came here via Claire at A little piece of me
acccccccccck!
my parents actually saw a grizzly on Monday when they went for a drive out here! has the local COs all abuzz right now
Aww, that's not fair. The bear got killed because the officer was dumb. Well, the guy will be mocked forever, so I guess that will help me feel a little better. But...I'm still on the bear's side.
OMG!!!!
Betcha he won't go at it alone again, 'eh!?!?
If this is the truth, and it sounds like it likely is, then the guy's stupidity cost a bear it's life. Not a good thing at all. I'll bet the guy needs to buy new pants now though, and he deserves all the ribbing he'll get from his co-workers for the rest of his life. Now he knows why some of the rules are put in place.
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