Oops, looks like trouble for this 21 yo hunter that shot the grizzly, then he and his partner tracked it down. At that point it attacked his 39 yo hunting partner and killed him. He then shot and killed the grizzly.
Not sure if they will be kind to a mistaken identity since the states up here go to great lengths having hunters able to identify the two types of bears here. Must of thought he had a cinnamon black bear.
Quite sad case. I suspect some sort of charges will come which will be complicated by the fact that his actions got his hunting partner killed. Could be trouble for this young man from Nevada.
I know that the mistaken identity of the Kelley Creek Idaho grizzly bear in 2007 did not end in charges but no one else was harmed. In addition, the Kelley Creek grizzly was the first sighted in the Bitterroots for over 60 years making the mistaken identity more understandable.
The fact that the 21 hunter shot the bear and then tracked it suggests that they must of thought it was a black bear. Sadly, grizzly tracks are very distinctive. If they recognized it was a grizzly, they should have simply left it and notified Fish and Game to deal with especially in light of the last case we have discussed over and over again and the third kill shot which seems to have been the source of contention.
I believe a mistaken first shot is more forgivable than how the situation ended especially since the bear wasn't killed with the first shot. This case will be harder to defend and the kid won't have the support of the locals since he was an out of state hunter. I suspect he will get some sort of jail time out of this. Not exactly what I had thought was the situation like the bow hunters last week.
Once again, quite a sad case that must have stemmed from lack of knowledge of the bears in question. This case doesn't appear very defensible after this last update. Will have to see how the Gravelly Mountain bow hunters make out, but this case will be problematic in many ways for this young man.
Quote:
Wounded grizzly kills hunter in remote Montana
Associated Press, 09.17.11, 01:42 AM EDT
BONNERS FERRY, Idaho -- Authorities say a grizzly bear wounded by a hunter along the Idaho-Montana border later attacked and killed the hunter's 39-year-old partner.
The Lincoln County Sheriff's office identified the hunter killed in Friday's attack as Steve Stevenson, who was a member of a hunting party from Winnemucca, Nev.
The attack occurred about 10 a.m. PDT in a mountainous, heavily forested region in Lincoln County, Mont., near the Canadian border.
Undersheriff Brent Faulkner says Stevenson's hunting partner, 21-year-old Ty Bell, shot and wounded a young male grizzly, then the two hunters tracked the animal to an area of heavy cover.
Faulkner says at that point, the wounded bear attacked and fatally injured Stevenson. Bell killed the animal with several shots.
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http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/...y_8685130.html