Biologists and Ecological Historians postulate that at the dawn of colonization, 100,000 Grizzly/Brown(same animal) roamed what would later become the USA..............Today, we fight to keep 1000 of them still alive in a few isolated pockets of protected Montana, Idaho and Wyoming as well as 32,000 in Alaska................Prior to monotheism when all humans simultaneously revered, worshiped and feared Grizzlies(now 99% of us fear them), indigenous peoples believed in a time when people and other animals could talk to each other, marry and even shape-shift.................. In Alaska the story of the woman who married a bear, told in different variations across the state, is a great example of this belief and of the intimate and volatile relationship between people and bears................. Bear worship continued until recent times with prime examples being the Ainu people of eastern Japan, the Sami people of northern Finland and the Gilyaks of eastern Siberia just to name a few...............The "bear truth", beyond the modern day myths of demon monsters and virile human hunters, is waiting for all of us to uncover................If we take the time, do the homework and get educated about Bears and other trophic Carnivores, we just might have a chance of actually being able to call ourselves a "civilized human animal",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Something to think about, focus on, ponder and act upon this weekend and the weeks ahead

Off the Beaten Path: The bear truth

By BJORN DIHLE

FOR THE JUNEAU EMPIRE

Photo by Bjorn Dihle

A lanky-looking brown bear combs a beach near Glacier Bay National Park. In the background, a clawed log shows newly-exposed wood.

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To have a better grasp on the reality behind a lot of brown bear stories, I follow a simple formula of multiplying the baloney factor of the story teller by six and dividing the bear’s weight by three. Bears can be intimidating, even horrifying, and always deserve a lot of respect. Yet, when examining the relationship between brown bears and people, a picture emerges that many find surprising.

There were an estimated 100,000 brown/grizzly bears in the contiguous U.S. before white settlers colonized the west. Today, after considerable conservation efforts, there are around 1,000 surviving in Montana, Washington, Idaho and Wyoming. In 2011, according to the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, 2,014 of Alaska’s estimated 32,000 brown bears were killed by hunters. On Admiralty, Baranof and Chichagof islands there has been an average annual take of around 120 brown bears since 1988.

Until August of 2012, there was no documented case of a bear killing a person in Alaska for seven years. For the last eight years, Alaska’s ratio has been more than 13,000 brown bears to two people killed. In northern Southeast Alaska — home to some of the densest concentrations of brown bears in the world — the ratio for the last 25 years is two people to 3,000 brown bears killed. On Admiralty Island — the Fortress of the Bear — there’s only one documented case of a brown bear killing someone in the last century. Around 180 of the famed Kodiak Island brown bears are killed annually; I know of only one documented case of a fatal mauling occurring on the Kodiak archipelago in the last 75 years.

Bears and people share a complicated connection that transcends cultures and goes back to the beginning of our history. At Le Regourdo in southern France, in a karst sink-hole, there’s a 70,000-year-old grave that many people believe shows evidence of brown bear worship. A young neanderthal had been placed by his people on a bear skin in a stone-lined pit. Around the skeleton are some stone tools and lots of brown bear bones, as if bear and man may have been buried side by side. In a number of nearby stone-containers built by neanderthals are brown bear bones, carefully arranged in neat patterns. One of the oldest examples of rock art — the 32,000 year old painting in the Chauvet Cave in Southern France — depicts a disproportional number of cave bears (an extinct species of bear most closely related to brown bears). The artists’ fascination is made more eerie by the 150 bear skeletons in the cave. In the middle of the cavern, a giant bear skull has been placed on a flat rock in a manner that suggests it’s looking over the cave.

Not only our ancient ancestors revered and worshiped bears; bear worship continued until recent times. Many indigenous peoples believed in a time when people and other animals could talk to each other, marry and even shape-shift. In Alaska the story of the woman who married a bear, told in different variations across the state, is a great example of this belief and of the intimate and volatile relationship between people and bears. Bear worship continued until recent times with prime examples being the Ainu people of eastern Japan, the Sami people of northern Finland and the Gilyaks of eastern Siberia just to name a few. After a number of encounters with brown bears, I think I may have an inkling of what these people felt. The power and intelligence of the bear, and the terror it sometimes inspires, can be of a religious nature.

In northern Southeast Alaska a link to bears and other wildlife still exists, one that’s largely been destroyed by civilization elsewhere in the world. Take a short boat ride, or even hike for the matter, out of Juneau and you’ll be in brown bear country. The bear truth, beyond the modern day myths of demon monsters and virile human hunters, is waiting there in the rainforest.

• Bjorn Dihle is a writer based out of Juneau. He can be reached at bjorndihle@yahoo.com.