Comment: This story with it's film footage of a mother grizzly bluff charging with her cub shows how unprepared and uneducated people can be in bear country.  If this person knew the first thing about bears he would not try and sneak up on a bear.  Bears can smell up to 5 miles away and they dont have to see or hear you to know you are there. Bears do not like to be surprised, they will act defensively, especially a grizzly.  This bear showed a calm face and ears and really just wanted this guy to go away but after the gun shot she will now be wary of every human she sees and/or smells. Her experience with humans is now a negative one posing a great threat and she will remember this and so will her cub. Bears can be filmed from a safe and respectable distance if they understand there is no threat.  Everyday people go to viewing stations and see bears in the wild who are habituated to people but they are not afraid..they are tolerant.

I hope the authorities come down hard on this person for carrying a loaded handgun into the forest without proper training and for harrassing wildlife. He brought undue risk to himself and to a mother grizzly and her cub. Thank goodness he did not injure one of the bears in his 'protective' response as this story would have turned out bad for the bears and the human.

Bears Matter!

Newscasts of Story with Bluff Charge of a Grizzly Mother:

http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/TV_Shows/The_National/ID=1527384873  - News story with video CBC National.   
http://www.globaltvbc.com/video/index.html - News story with video on GlobalBC TV

Finanical Post June 22 -Filmmaker Narrowly Escapes Grizzly Attack

by Ron Nuwisah

B.C.-based filmmaker and photographer Leon Lorenz is lucky to be alive after he escaped an attack from a charging grizzly bear.

Lorenz was shooting footage of the animal when the animal, a female grizzly bear, caught his scent and grew alarmed. It quickly charged at the filmmaker. But the experienced wildlife documentary maker was able to fend it off by firing his handgun into the air.

From the Vancouver Sun story:

“I was blinded because she was zigzagging in and out between the trees — I didn’t know if she was going to come at me from the right or the left,” he said. “I had no target.”

Lorenz aimed high and pulled the trigger — right when the bear came crashing through the branches several feet away. Spooked, she turned back around with her cub and ran off, said Lorenz.

“If I had waited a split-second later, she would have had me,” he said. “She was a blur, going by me, she was so fast. Even if I had hit her, her momentum would have carried her forward. She was running on so much adrenalin, she would have made sure I was dead before she died, and her cub probably would have attacked, too.”

Lorenz is grateful that he survived the encounter but also pleased that the bears were not hurt.

From the CBC:

“The timing couldn’t have been more perfect,” he said. “The outcome couldn’t have been more perfect as far as, you know, I wasn’t touched, she wasn’t wounded, she wasn’t killed, her baby’s OK … and I was able to capture the whole thing [on film].”

The adult male grizzly bear had been snared and tranquilized by federal researchers Thursday morning and fitted with a radio collar before being released.

Erwin Frank Evert, 70, of Park Ridge, Ill., was found dead at the capture site Thursday after the bear was released. Evert ignored warning signs posted advising hikers to avoid the area because of the likelihood of a dangerous bear encounter.

Wildlife officials used a helicopter and radio tracking gear to locate and shoot the bear Saturday morning, after making unsuccessful attempts Friday to catch it.

To Read More: http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/wyoming/article_f45a84f8-7bbd-11df-9a95-001cc4c002e0.html?mode=story