[BearwWthoutBorders] Toying with the idea of a new discussion list on wildlife matters (Bears -- Grizzlies and Blacks)

[Hunter Gray]

(From Redbadbear discussion.  I've expanded it slightly to provide background "bits" of which readers on other lists may not be aware.)

Note by Hunter Bear: 12/26/2012

Thanks, Blue, for posting the piece on the Grizzly/Polar bear mix.  That helps confirm something that I, along with many others, have long suspected could occur.

Actually, when I mentioned "a new list," it was tongue in cheek.  I'm not sure how much interest there would be in that -- but, on the other hand, those wildlife observations and questions could certainly fit into RBB anytime anyone wishes to do so.  Domestic cats and bobcats can inter breed and, in certain settings, it's not uncommon at all.

The Sycamore Canyon Wilderness Area well to the southwest of Flagstaff (Arizona) is -- Real Wilderness. It's long, wide, incredibly rough.    No roads, no sedentary human habitations, no fences, no mines -- beyond probably an old 1700s Spanish mine in the Canyon's lower region.  And it's been for several decades now, formally designated Wilderness Area and thus as "safe" as anything can be in this day and age.  It's the second largest canyon in the Arizona, the first being, of course, the huge and vast Grand Canyon.  Very few humans get down into Sycamore and it's impossible to take a horse or a mule "down in."  Although Sycamore is far from totally "boxed in", it is, in many ways, a "system unto itself" -- and still totally pristine.  I may be the only human in contemporary times who has hiked its full length and I did that when I was 21. Depending on how you want to calculate its distance -- its various "head waters" or the full Canyon itself, it's about 25 miles long or more, very deep, very wide.

As a much younger person, I spent a great deal of exploration and hunting time -- years of it -- in Sycamore.  I know it extremely well, perhaps better than any human -- but there certainly remain some sections of it into which even I have never been.

It's always full of wildlife. (Legal hunting is technically permitted -- but virtually no one wants to pack game out of that great chasm.)  There are certainly black bears and, in my informed opinion, there are still some grizzlies left in one of the Canyon's roughest areas.  There were once many grizzlies in the Sycamore setting. Grizzlies, of course, are carnivorous and black bears are omnivorous.  When cattle ranching began in the areas not far from the Canyon, grizzlies came up and went after the cattle.  That led to their being hunted into official extinction by professional hunters with dogs and traps.  But, as I say, I am convinced there are some grizzlies still 'way down in."  I saw their "sign" when I passed through, now more than a half century ago.

There is variance in the size of black bears, depending on the region.  Black bears in Minnesota are small -- maybe a couple of hundred pounds and often less.  In other areas along the northern tier, they can be larger.  In Arizona, they tend to stick around 200 to 300 and occasionally 350 pounds.  Some black bears in Sycamore can be even larger.

This brings us to my huge Coming of Age Bear, technically a black -- which, as an older Teen, I killed deep down in the Canyon. I was culturally mandated to take him. By the informed estimates of my father and our good friend, Frank Dolphin, who came down into the Canyon a day after my triumph -- both of whom  knew a great deal about bears, and by the back up estimates of other informed people who saw the meat that we packed out in chunks (took a few days to accomplish that tough task) -- my bear was possibly 650 pounds live weight. Even being very, very conservative, he was above 600 pounds.  It was a very angry bear when I initially wounded him and he came straight toward me until I fired several more shots into him. (30/30 Winchester Model 94 lever action, 180 grain Silvertip cartridges.)

So, I have often wondered if He was a mix. We will never know for certain. The meat was fine and we ate every single bit of it over a few years.  His skull is always with me, wherever I go -- with the exception of the Army years.  It hangs on my wall, right here.  The Skull always has a place of honor.

Long time after I shot him, my father and I took the skull of the Great Bear and also the skull of a mule deer Dad had once shot, to our very, very secluded rudimentary camp area right on the Sycamore rim and posed for a photo that my little brother took.  It's kind of a "fun photo" -- and I attach it here.  You can see the considerable size of the skull.  Some people on our lists have already seen this photo -- but take a good look at the skull.

Here's a piece of mine on Grizzlies in Arizona including the sign I saw 'way down in the super rough area of Sycamore.  It's been years since that's been on our lists,  http://hunterbear.org/grizzlies.htm

Hunter Bear

HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis 
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk 
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org 
(much social justice material)

I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands.

See my extensive Movement Life Interview, done by Bruce
Hartford of Civil Rights Movement Veterans:
http://hunterbear.org/HUNTER%20BEAR%20INTERVIEW%20CRMV.htm
And see my reflection ON BEING A MILITANT AND RADICAL
ORGANIZER -- AND AN EFFECTIVE ONE:
http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm

The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
(Expanded in Fall 2012. Photos. Material on our Native
background.)  And see Personal Background Narrative: 
http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm  (Updated into 2012) 

For the new (11/2011) and expanded/updated
edition of my "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- 
with a new and substantial introduction by me.
 http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.mayfirst.org/pipermail/bearwithoutborders/attachments/20121226/a2efc776/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: bearskull.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 6781 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.mayfirst.org/pipermail/bearwithoutborders/attachments/20121226/a2efc776/attachment.jpg>