Hiker in Montana apparently killed by a Grizzly

Sad indeed. You gotta feel for the fellow and his loved ones. Nobody is ever looking to have that kind of interaction (well, outside of nuts like Timothy Treadwell I guess).

But also sad for the perception of grizzlies/bears. Every time this happens it seems people start to view them as problems or threats to be dealt with rather than an endangered apex predator to be protected as part of the ecosystem. Interesting (if a bit dry and scholarly) research paper about public perception of grizzlies in Alberta can be read here.
 
Society in general has real problems understanding the concept of relative risk.

Had a former SIL who moved to the sticks. He was a hunter though absolutely terrified about wolves, but totally comfortable about commuting 80 miles every day in every kind of weather on a stretch of state highway with a statistically high accident rate.
 
Just want to make sure @Derek Young saw this.

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I did a solo backpacking trip in the Beartooths a couple years ago. I ran into 3 different people on the trail, all of who first asked me if I had a gun and/or bear spray (which I didn’t), and then went on to tell me stories of grizzly encounters in the area. I had thought the risk was overblown and wasn’t worried about it. I now feel differently. Grizzlies are cool animals but they are no joke.
 
Sad to hear this. It seems a bit early for such an encounter, although it has been unseasonably warm. Grizzlies are one of the critters I don’t want to run into. I love watching them, from a serious distance.
 
That grizzly attack was not far from Dailey Lake and the Dome Mountain Wildlife Refuge. There are large herds of elk that migrate there from Yellowstone Park in the winter, and there are lots of grizzlies in the area.

In 2017, Montana’s Fish and Wildlife proposed buying the Dome Mountain Ranch which was for sale at the time and part of which adjoined the wildlife refuge. That property would have been a great addition to the state:

About - Dome Mountain Ranch

Dome Mountain Ranch is one of the last remaining private wildlife 
preserves in southwest Montana. Lodged right in the heart of southern Paradise Valley.
domemountainranch.com domemountainranch.com

However, this Ranch was subsequently purchased in 2021 by Arthur Blank, the co-founder of Home Depot and owner of the Atlanta Falcons. Blank already owns other ranches nearby there.

www.livingstonenterprise.com

Arthur Blank buys Dome Mountain Ranch

Arthur M. Blank’s AMB West Holding Company has purchased Dome Mountain Ranch in the Paradise Valley just north of Yellowstone National Park.
www.livingstonenterprise.com www.livingstonenterprise.com

When I say there are lots of grizzlies in that area, I’m not overstating this at all. There have been a number of other persons attacked and mauled by grizzlies over the years in that general area.

I have a large print hanging on the wall in my office at home that was made by Todd Fredericksen, who lives several miles west of where this grizzly attack happened. Todd told me he was radio tracking a collared mountain lion for the Fish and Wildlife Department when they encountered this grizzly attemptling to get these kittens from its mother. The lion subsequently chased the bear away and saved the kittens.

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That area is a zoo during hunting season. Same family lost their house to a fire a couple years ago.

Condolences to the family.
 
When it lived in SW Montana, 30 years year ago, we started being concerned about griz around presidents day weekend. What's changed?
 
I’d rather my life be taken by nature and wildlife than by urban means like cars, shitballs, or fentanyl. At least I still can leagilly try and protect myself while out in nature for the most part.
 
I lived in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem in the 1970s and early 80s and spent all my free time in the backcountry. Neither I nor anyone I knew ever saw a grizzly. No one was concerned about grizzlies then, except for the concern about their being extirpated from the Park and surrounding areas when the Park went through a period of bear mismanagement. This was when the Craighead brothers were studying bears in the Park and warned that the populations were dangerously low. Since then policies have changed, bear populations have recovered, bears are seen all the time, even in populated areas, and all of my old friends who still live there carry bear spray every time they set foot in the back country. Times have changed. I'm glad the bears are back, but I feel terribly sorry for those who are injured or killed and their friends/families in bear encounters.
 
The grizzlies in MT are no joke. Populations have grown to where the government is seriously considering de-listing them as endangered and allowing limited hunting of them. I live between West Glacier NP and the Swan River Valley. There are bears all over this area. I carry bear spray with me everywhere. If that doesn’t work, I also carry a 10mm loaded with 220gr hard cast bear loads. The best scenario is, of course, to avoid contact altogether, but it’s becoming more and more common for encounters to happen, particularly with the human population explosion in the Flathead Valley. Just last Summer, a woman was drug from her tent by a grizzly and killed in an RV Park/Campground in the middle of town. Our neighbor had a sow with a cub in their carport last year as well.
 
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