Scary Bear Attacks Podcast

Welcome back to Scary Bear Attacks! This weekend's episode takes us to familiar territory. If you have watched our previous stories on Olga Moskalyova, Vitaly Nikolyenko and Alexey Ivanovski then you will know we are talking about the Russian Far East. We are returning to Kamchatka to a beautiful place called Lake Kurilskoye. As you can see by our map, we are now near the center of 5 cases regarding attacks we have previously discussed. The Sankebetsu Bear attack on Hokkaido, The Kinshur Island attack, the Olga Moskalyev attack, the Vitaly Nikolenko attack and the topic of today's episode. If you are picking up on a pattern here, you are not the only one. These islands are some of the most sparsely populated areas, yet we have documented some of the most tragic, violent and unfortunate bear attacks ever. After today’s episode you may agree with me, that this area of the world is most likely the most dangerous in regard to deadly bear attacks. The location is beautiful Lake Kurilskoye, with its clear waters and cool temperatures, it receives very few visitors each year. Any visitors that may find their way there might be photographers, researchers and possibly fishermen, otherwise you can count on solitude, peace and bears, lots of bears. Michio Hoshino is an extremely accomplished wildlife photographer, observer and researcher in his mid forties. He was born in Japan and moved to Alaska to photograph brown bears in the 70’s. His photos, videos and artwork have brought the farthest corners of the world into the canvas and lighting of galleries around the world. In 1996, he was hired to do photography on a documentary about brown bears. The first few days of filming went great, but on day three the photography crew lucked up on a very large male brown bear that did not mind the crew approaching within a few yards of him while he fished. The bear would simply ignore the crew and they recorded some amazing footage of the giant bruin as it gorged itself on salmon just a few meager yards away from their lenses. The next day they returned to the same spot, and there he was again. He seemed to relish the spotlight and played and showed off for the crews. He was not aggressive or threatening in any way, even though the photographers would sometimes approach within 5 yards to film him eating. The crew continued this for a third day and decided to make the hike to the lake to watch the big bear fish as part of their regular trip to gather footage. The big bear seemed content as he pulled in huge salmon and effortlessly tore them apart right in front of the crew. Some of these fish weighed about half as much as some of the men. It was on the fourth day, during the morning hike up the trail that the crew noticed large piles of scat close to their camp in the trail to the big bears fishing hole. They continued their hike and noticed his tracks and scat were placed over their boot tracks in the trail from when they returned to camp the prior day. Well, this is bear country and we are hiking on a bear trail, so a certain amount of that can be expected. The photography crew went on about their filming trek for the day, but when they got to the big bear's fishing hole, he wasn’t there. They were bummed but they could just return with a bunch of film of the same bear doing the same thing anyway. That would be boring. They finished up with a few shots of a sow and cubs that they watched for the afternoon and returned back to camp just before evening. As the men made it down the hill to the main trail back to camp, they noticed more bear scat. It was the big boar's tracks and this time his tracks were in their boot tracks from their hike up this morning.

Welcome back to scary bear attacks! Today’s episode takes us to the remote Siberian wilderness. A beautiful and wild place that we have visited in prior episodes, the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia’s far east. The area is known as the Kronotsky Wildlife Reserve not far from where our episode discussing Igor and Olga Moskalyova occurred. The geography of the peninsula is thick with alder and other scrub brush as well as groves of pine, fir and birch trees. Vitaly Nikolayenko was a 66 year old bear researcher. He was a self taught naturalist and wildlife photographer. This is his 33 year living with brown bears and documenting their mating rituals, social interactions and feeding habits. The bears tolerated him and his intrusion into their environment although he had to tumble down cliffs and climb trees to avoid charging bears at times. He was a senior ranger working on the reserve and would spend several months each year at remote locations performing his research. Vitaly was renowned among the bear research sphere of scientists filling hundreds of journals and thousands of pages with his observations, field notes and illustrations. He traveled an estimated one thousand kilometers per year through the wilderness of the reserve warding off poachers and illegal fishermen. Vitaly documented over 800 bear contacts per year and he knew many of the bears personally, if you will. His favorite was an older male he named “Dobrynya” whom he could curl up near, and sleep by, on occasion. The year 2003 was a peculiar year, in that the bears had not gone into hibernation by late December. It was most likely due to an environmental cause like a low salmon run or berry crop in the area. He was waiting for a helicopter out of the reserve for the season, from the warmth and safety of the park cabin he called home while on duty. While preparing some tea, Vitaly looked out the window and saw his old friend, Dobrynya walking right past the cabin on the bear trail. He grabbed his camera and his skis and followed the slow moving bruin toward the lake. He also brought his bear spray and his flare gun to scare the bear in case of a problem. Dobrynya slowly waddled his way up the snow covered trail a few hundred yards ahead of Vitaly. The man always enjoyed listening to his bear friend’s deep groans and rumbles as he was getting ready to rest, so Vitaly hurried to catch up. His cross country skis allowed him to stay on top of the snow and slide across the crust which helped him make up ground on the bear. It only took about a mile before Vitaly saw Dobrynya’s tracks entering into a thick grove of alders.

My family was held captive and harassed all night by a young male black bear that no one could scare off or catch.

Welcome back to Scary Bear Attacks! Today's episode takes us to Santa Monica, California. Yes! I am not joking. Not the town of today but a century and a half ago. Before the freeways and high rise buildings of today, Santa Monica was a seaside bear haven and yes, some of those bears were Grizzly bears.

In 1853 the area may have had about 100 people and was starting to be farmed by Mexican settlers. The local plant life was an assortment as diverse as box elder and maple to salt bush and manzanita. The temperatures were very steady without a frost and rarely going above 90 degrees. This is the perfect environment for many different plant species and animals. One of those animal species that thrived in the area were brown bears.

Andy Sublette was 46 years old on December 19th and enjoyed hunting bears and many other animals in the area. He was very proficient and was known in the area as a good guy to have around the ranch to keep the many predators from eating livestock.

The winters in Santa Monica were less humid than the summers and consequently there was less fog. The heat wasn't as bad so it made for easy and satisfying hunting. It wasn't hard to find enough deer to keep the pot filled, but Andy really enjoyed finding and harvesting those giant brown bears that lived in the area. Their hide made great rugs and could be sold for a fair price and the meat wasn't too bad either.

Andy and a few of his friends decided to head up above the hills beyond the beach and see what kind of luck they may be able to find. They each decided to hunt a different area and split up accordingly. Andy, and his dog Mick, followed a low ridge above a small creek which was overgrown with Manzanita and Alder. The thick brush made for a great place for animals to hide but also granted Andy great cover as he searched for game. Typically the hunting trips weren't really long as the game was plentiful and success was nearly inevitable any time hunters went out.

As Andy crossed the top of a low ridge, he could see a large brown mound slowly strolling across the hill opposite the creek. The hillside was covered with a new crop of clover which the bear was munching a path through. Andy knew this was a great opportunity to harvest a large animal that would provide a lot of meat and a great hide, so he crept into shooting position and began to aim for the bear's vital area.

He rested his rifle across a tree limb for support and fired. The bear immediately tossed and turned in pain, then dashed into the bush where Andy could no longer see him. Mick bolted down the hill and immediately started barking at the bottom of the draw. Andy could hear the bear rustling around in the bush a bit and waited to see if it might show itself for a second shot. He reloaded and kept watching and waiting for an opportunity. The bear didn't run far and didn't quit making noise moving around as Mick continued to bark at him.

After about 45 minutes of waiting, Andy decided to sneak down to where he heard the rustling to see if the bear had died yet. He hadn't heard a death moan, which is characteristic when a bear dies. It is almost a sad lament from the bear and can be heard from a few hundred yards in distance. He began sneaking through the underbrush toward where he had heard the rustling. The brush was parched at this point in the year due to the dry Santa Anna winds and that didn't help Andy, as he could no longer hear anything but crunching and crackling.

Andy had traveled about 80 yards toward the rustling noise, when Mick began to growl. Andy continually pointed his rifle in the direction he had heard the rustling, but wasn't aware of the fact that he had just passed the location. He walked right beside the injured bear which took cover in a small gulley.

Welcome back to Scary Bear Attacks! Today’s episode takes us to the beautiful and scenic mountain environs in the Flathead National Forest in Northwestern Montana. The rugged Rocky Mountains tower near the horizon and Flathead Lake shimmers in the sunlight. The mountains are predominantly granite in composition and are covered in pine, fir and aspen trees.

The Outer Trail of the Green Gate Trail System is an exciting network of trails that hikers and mountain bikers traverse frequently this time of year. The trail is right at 10 miles long and is an easy ride for mountain bikers within an hour or so.

Brad Treat was a Forest Service Ranger and he and wife owned a home that granted them immediate access to the trail system. This location was prime for them as they enjoyed jogging on the mountain trails every morning together.

It was a warm day on June 19th, 2016 around 2 PM and Brad and his wife’s cousin, whom we will call Chuck, decided to ride the trail together for Chuck’s first ever mountain bike ride. Since they were riding they did not need to take firearms or cell phones and decided to leave the bear spray at home too. They rode fast, as Brad knew the trail very well. Brad was leading the way and was speeding around a blind corner with Chuck about 30 yards behind.

Brad was traveling at about 30 miles an hour and zipped around a bend and down a slope in the trail that was obscured by brush. The plants alongside the trail smear into a dappled green blur at this speed and before Brad could react, he slammed into something huge and dark. He flipped over his handlebars and landed hard with his arms outstretched, breaking both of his wrists and shattering his right scapula on impact.

Chuck heard the impact of Brad riding into the bear and heard the bear let out an anguished moan as if injured, but could not see the incident yet.

As Brad glanced up from the ground, a huge boar grizzly bear came into focus and he yelled “bear!”. Brad yelled for Chuck twice as the bear straddled him and bit and severely clawed his neck and face. The reactionary attack was done so quickly that Brad was dead in an instant.

Chuck slid to a stop a short distance away and could see the grizzly standing over Brad and facing away from him. The bear was focused on Brad and didn’t acknowledge Chuck’s arrival at all. He quickly assessed what he should do and decided to go get help. He turned back around and pedaled all the way back to find help. Chuck notified authorities of the occurrence and a recovery party was established.

The recovery party arrived at the scene of the confrontation and could see Brad’s corpse lying in the trail just as described and his helmet was shattered and bitten into pieces around him. The bear consumed no part of Brad’s body which confirmed the authorities conclusion that this was strictly a defensive attack by the bear. This was confirmed by the fact that the bear never buried Brad’s body nor came back to it after the incident.

The bear's DNA was gathered from Brad’s body and was on file with the Park Services. The bear was not euthanized due to the defensive nature of the attack and the lack of any other incidents with humans. The bear was a 20 year old male.

Run-ins with bears are much more common for mountain bikers than hikers and authorities recommend slowing down, carrying bear spray and staying vigilant. Brad Treats death was the first incident of a mountain biker being attacked and killed by a grizzly bear in Montana.

Father and daughter hike through Glacier National Park and have to jump off of cliffs to save their lives.

Welcome back to Scary Bear Attacks. Today’s episode takes us to the prestigious Rocky Mountains, to a little town called Ouray. The rigorous landscape consists of steep, boulder strewn mountainsides with lush pine forests, the perfect environment for sightseeing, and black bears. Water resources are abundant as well deer, elk and various berry bushes and nuts for bears to eat and nurture their offspring from. A popular tourist destination, the Colorado backcountry is replete with people. Hikers, skiers, hunters and campers frequently crowd the primitive areas bears prefer to live in, so sightings and confrontations are a possibility. Educated and experienced travelers are prepared with either firearms, bear spray or both.

Donna Munson was a 74 year old single female retiree and widow who lived four miles north of town and enjoyed her space, as well as her local wildlife. Her husband had passed away about 14 years prior to her attack so she was alone, with the exception of her periodic renters. She navigated her property with the support of a walker and was losing her vitality to age.

She befriended squirrels, birds, deer, elk and even skunks and frequently fed them from her porch or windows in her home. She even had visits from the local black bear population and particularly enjoyed their visits. She would set out dog food and bird seed for the area animals to eat as she watched from the relative safety of her fenced in elevated deck. Donna was too frail to carry the big bags of dog and cat food, so she engineered a pulley system that would allow to lift the bags up to her deck. The animals essentially developed into her social interactions for each day and she believed she understood them and had developed a personal rapport with them. They were her friends and she believed she knew them well enough to trust them.

As the years went on and she would see new individuals come and then go, the authorities began to look closely at what was going on near her home. They cautioned her against the illegal act of feeding wildlife of all kinds, as well as the dangers of feeding bears. She became so accustomed to receiving their certified letters and phone calls instructing her to stop feeding animals at her home that she began ignoring the warnings and cautions. Authorities began building a case to file charges against Donna, but the wheels of justice turn very slowly and require time to accumulate evidence. Donna had also been informed that any bears seen feeding at her home would be euthanized. Afterall, it isn’t that only bears can be dangerous once they get accustomed to regular feeding from a single source. Animals as peaceful in appearance as deer and elk have attacked people whenever they are no longer afraid of humans.

Donna’s neighbors had approached her on a few occasions after learning she was feeding the bears from her home. They expressed strong opposition to this practice as they had been seeing more and more bears in their neighborhood and in the hills surrounding the area. Some of these bears had started to approach humans for food and even acting aggressively toward them. Neighbors reported seeing as many as 14 bears at one time on her property.

A short on the recent bear attack on Craig Cloutre just north of Yellowstone National Park.

John Wallace was mauled and eaten by a grizzly bear that previously killed Brian Matayoshi but was tagged and released.

Olga Moskalyova called her mom while four bears ate her alive.