ORIGINAL: Hiawatha
Fuzzyballs, a few of the books i have read written by the same guy who handles hundreds of bear attack cases in western Canadaclaims that he has had enough cases of grizz climbing trees come across his desk now to form the theory that grizz will climb trees up until age 4-6 because they loose their ability to grip/turn paw unlike the blackie who retains this the full lifespan. Weird i never knew that was possible. I just read over this stuff again last night cause it got me interested again. There is one story where a bear used the limbs to climb much like that of a human except the bear hooked its wrists over the limbsand another where the bear just hugged the tree and scuried up. There was one pretty bad one also where the bear would climb the tree, get the victims foot in its mouth then let go of the tree, free falling 25 feet taking the human with them. The bear did this to a guy twice, was unreal. I thought this info was pretty interesting so i thought i'd share. I read alot of bear attack books, bout all that can keep my attention.
I don't have so much pride that I can't admit when I may be wrong. Apparently I need to do some more homework. I'm not a super man and I certainly don't know it all!!!! Now you have stirred my interest and I'll have to do some more research myself!
I have an amazing book called "Bear Attacks of the Century." It is based on the coastal bears in Alaska, and it is actualy survivor stories. Great book that is able to hold your interest because it is a series of well written shorter stories.
It's actually the book that solidified my dream of taking a coastal bear. In one of the stories the bear is shot in the EYE with a 30.06 from 30 yards out. The round was unable to penetrate the skull of the 900 lb bear which barely flinched when it was hit. The bear attacked and only left when it lost interest in the victim. It was a well placed shot to the spinal column that finally took the bear with a .300 H&H.