Creatures magnificent

When I caught a local whale wrapping it's prey and FedExing it to Haiti I realized that sea creatures were more compassionate than I had ever before realized.

Oh wait.... maybe I'm.... uh.... anthropomorphizing or something.

I don't think so, B. I heard about that same whale.

There is a famous national geographic video of a killer (whale) dolphin pushing a baby seal onto the beach in the middle of eating its adult relatives. Playing with its food or saving something for later ? Perhaps responding to maternal instincts.

I seem to have heard of dolphins doing similar rescues for humans. Of course, people pushed out to sea instead of the beach don't make reports.

Of course, they generally haven't taken the humans down first, before rescuing them!

Can you imagine the conversation between the human and the dolphin pushing him out farther away from the beach:
Human: Hey! I think the beach is the other way.
Dolphin: Nah ah! It's this way!
Human: I'm sure it's the other way!
Dolphin: I asked that shark for directions and he pointed this way. He never steers me wrong!
Human: I'm so screwed!

Dolphins would NEVER believe a shark.

Any dolphin doing that would be doing it to be horrid.


"Take THAT for the pollution and the global warming and depleting the fish and for being turds to the whales!"

grizzly bears are just not predictable at all and any generalities about their behavior is only speculation. When they are in their hyperphagic modes, either just after or just before denning, theyve been known to kill and eat cubs and hikers can get mauled badly .
The theory has been forwarded by the old bear team of the Craighead brothers that all the really anti social grizzly bears were killed off by humans during a single century. Whats left are the bears witha genetic code for being more shy and submissive? That was their working hypothesis.

Black bears have more examples of killing and eating humans than grizzlies. Theyve been known to actually "stalk" hikers and playing "dead" doesnt help with these guys. In Maine, whenever I go hiking in the woods, I carry a piece (a 45) and I would shoot a bear that was appearing to stalk me. Ive been on walks on a 5 sq mi peninsula that has a few bears and Im often surprised at how close they can get. Fortunately, because of all the stupid laws about bear hunting in Maine (they allow bearshooting on "donut holes") The avg bear is only about 200 pounds. In Pa, where bear hunting is controlled by count and is a stalk and kill hunt, the bears can go 6 to 700 pounds, with an 800 pounder from Pa holding the record nationally.
I would not ever trust a black bear ( Of course Id watch a grizzly momma with cubs as a dont get to close warning, or bears engaged in salmon fishing)

Hell, Ive been chased by a coyote and I swear he had rabbies.

Actually, quite a bit of grizzly bear behavior is predictable, FM. For obvious reasons, it's not something one would want to bet the farm on.

It's not unusual for the male of many species to off the kids to enhance their own chances of reproducing.

There's nothing shy and submissive about a sow bear that is raking one's cranium, sides and back with her teeth and claws. And she could pop open any brain bucket like it was a water balloon yet she most often does not. One swipe could end a life but it most often does not.

It seems exceedingly odd to me that a hyperphagic grizzly would content itself with mauling a hiker especially when it knows, and it does, that this squirming hunk is chuck full of protein.

Killer whales and other whales the same. They have had ample opportunity to off any number of researchers, divers, etc.

From my understanding hyperphagia does not extend to just before den up. Bears go into a transition period where they don't eat, but they drink copious amounts of water to rid their bodies of whatever they need to rid to rid their bodies of and tend to sleep long long hours before they actually hibernate.

ursid hyperphagia, according to the Craigheads, is a pre den, post den, and urinary tract purge phenom. In many animals its a glandular problem.

You sound like the "grizzly Man" who was certain about the habits and musings of barren-ground grizzlies and brownies.

As Craigheads stated, the grizzlies were thinned heavily to a species diversity quite different and "bottlenecked" from the native population prior to European settlement and the introduction of 60 calibre ammo. The journals of Lewis and Clark are full of grizzly attacks and how these bears were kept a watch for because they were "so feerse".

Im still not gonna trust a black bear without a gun in the deep forests of Pa. in the spring to fall.

I'm don't put great store in the journals of L&C.



Yes, of course it's pre den. It occurs for a relatively long period of time even denning is even an issue.

http://www.bear.org/website/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=191:5-stages-of-activity-and-hibernation&catid=61&Itemid=122

I haven't said I was certain about any of this, FM. I suggest that it's you who is acting in this manner.



Trust but verify. The vast vast majority of cases are non-events. More bears see, hear and smell you without you knowing than you've ever seen or will ever see.

I am sooooo glad you posted farmer.

Bears ARE unpredictable.

I would never assume I was safe if I found myself in the presence of one.

bears are verra cool to observe.

bears don't like to be bothered.

be careful out there...



and only you can prevent forest fires.

People are unpredictable, Chai.

If you've ever been in areas where bears are, you've been in the presence of, probably, more than one. Millions upon millions of meetings and non-meetings, pretty much dependent upon whether a bear wants to have on, have resulted in nothing.

Millions of people hike thru bear country every year, have for centuries and the number of "collisions" is miniscule. Bears smell humans often, and from great distances, and if they so desired, they could be there, where you are, in jig time. That doesn't happen and yet they clearly know that you are a walking piece of incredibly easy meat.

"Killer whales" are in fact dolphins.

PREVENT (??) forest fires ??? Uh-oh...

Im not gonna say nuttin.

There have been several greenies studying bears who have been killed by Black Bears when they become adult males. Most people who know a great deal about bear behaviour will no longer trust Black Bears but will happily trust Brown Bears, and this includes several researches who have raised both bears from cubs.