Mans Longest War

Beagle · Post by **Beagle** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 10:20 pm

http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/w/x/wxk116/cavebears/

It's hard to imagine having to fight one of these.

Post by **Minimalist** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 10:59 pm

I wouldn't want to fight a duck with a flint-tipped spear.

gunny · Post by **gunny** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 8:07 am

The 1000# weight of the bear must be in error. Some Kodiac bears today weigh that at 10 feet. A 20 foot bear had to weigh near a tonne.

Beagle · Post by **Beagle** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 9:27 am

Gunny, after looking that up, it seems that you must be right.

I also have to think that the "war" was eventually won due to climate change.

gunny · Post by **gunny** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 11:12 am

Cannot see climate change doing that. Warmer weather means more plants to eat. Think fire had the big factor. Would not have taken but one spear to have killed the beast days later. A fire at the entrance would have repelled all other predators. Fire is the answer.

Beagle · Post by **Beagle** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 11:29 am

Gunny - that's a good point and you are probably right. Man would have employed Special Weapons and Tactics to be sure. Having fire at his disposal was huge.

The only reason I suggested and still consider climate change is because at the end of the last ice age the extinction of megafauna occured all over the world. In Europe, Asia, America, etc. they died simultaneously.

Often Man is blamed for that but most folks now blame climate change.

Post by **Minimalist** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 12:41 pm

Kodiak's are big mothers.

[img]http://big_game.at.infoseek.co.jp/bear/koda.jpg[/img]

Beagle · Post by **Beagle** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 12:48 pm

We should be doing everything we can to ensure their existence. That is, unless they get off that island.

Post by **Minimalist** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 1:03 pm

I wouldn't want one of those for a neighbor.

Barracuda · Post by **Barracuda** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 4:32 pm

Thanks! I enjoyed the Article very much!

To be honest, I am very ambivelent...

The Grizzly Bear is on the California State Flag, but became extinct here in about 1890.

That makes me sad, but then sometimes at night out in the Sierras by myself, I am secretly glad there are gone...

I have been charged by Black Bears, but it is just not the same thing...

Post by **Minimalist** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 4:46 pm

I have been charged by Black Bears, but it is just not the same thing...

Probably close enough, though.

Barracuda · Post by **Barracuda** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 1:38 pm

Black Bear charges are rarely serious. It is often a form of play with them.

You are supposed to stand your ground and not flinch, but easier said than done...

I just returned from a week in the Sierras where we used to have a lot of trouble with bears in camp, but since Yosemite Park stopped relocating their problem bears there, there haven't been any problems. Unfortunately, the prblem bears at Yosemtite are now put down, rather than relocated.

Post by **Minimalist** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 1:43 pm

Black Bear charges are rarely serious.

If I saw a bear coming at me and I was armed with anything less powerful than an armored personnel carrier I doubt that I'd hang around long enough to check his identity papers.

As the old joke goes...

Two guys are hiking when a bear charges at them and they take off in the other direction. One guy shouts to the other:

"Hey...we can't outrun a bear."

The other guy answers:

"I don't have to outrun the bear....I only have to outrun you."

Beagle · Post by **Beagle** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 2:51 pm

I came across a black bear in the Shenandoah mts. many years ago. Just as I was about to sprout wings and fly he bolted and ran off. Lucky for me there were no cubs or anything involved.

stan · Post by **stan** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 4:09 pm

Sometimes black bears weigh 400 pounds.