Yellowstone's website says there have been eight deaths from grizzly attacks in 150 years, one more than the number of deaths from falling trees.īut threaten a grizzly's habitat, food supply or, worst of all, a female's cubs, and look out. If investigators doubt legitimate self-defense, shooting a grizzly can get you one year in prison and a $50,000 fine.Īttacks are rare - Yellowstone literature says there's about a 1 in 2.7 million chance a person will be injured by a grizzly bear. Grizzlies are federally protected, and killing them, even in self-defense, is an automatic legal issue. Grizzlies are common in what's known as the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which stretches into chunks of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. It's hard to say for sure how a grizzly would fare against a tiger or hippo, but wildlife experts say the grizzly might be the No. Its true meaning speaks to human admiration of the singular ferocity of the grizzly bear, which just might be the most dangerous creature on earth. The quote's origins are fuzzy and date back 100 years, although many still implausibly attribute it to Mahatma Gandhi. THERE IS AN OLD adage that if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly. Suddenly the two wrestlers were in the toughest match of their life. Brady ended his sentence and was only able to blurt out "Bear!" before a 500-pound grizzly hit him in the chest. That's when they heard a loud cracking noise. Kendell was about 50 feet away when he heard Brady yell, "Hey, watch out for this big pile of bear s-." Up on the mountain, Brady and Kendell had waded into a deep brush, so dense that it was almost impossible to see the ground. The pairs were a half-mile apart at around 4 p.m., far enough that Brady and Kendell could just barely hear Gus and Orrin talking and joking around down below. Brady and Kendell went up Gus and Orrin stayed lower. Andy Austin for ESPNĪs sunset approached, they split up into pairs and pointed toward a specific rock off in the distance where they could meet in an hour or so. From left: Northwest College wrestlers Gus Harrison, Brady Lowry, Kendell Cummings and Orrin Jackson. Thick and thin, thick and thin, for miles. and then spots where every shrub and tree seemed to have banded together and decided to form a neighborhood. They traversed areas of wide-open jagged rock. They hiked close to 15 miles in six hours that day on the Bobcat-Houlihan Trail, which sits on the outskirts of Yellowstone. The four stuck together for most of the day. They kept telling him he was going to be a blinking food sign for any aggressive wildlife in the area. They'd gone out with two other Northwest College wrestlers, Gus Harrison and Orrin Jackson, and they spent the 45-minute drive teasing Gus for wearing a bright red sweatshirt instead of camo or dark clothing. A good day of shed hunting can net a college kid $500, and today, Oct. A big set of antlers can be worth $200 or so. They both loved the outdoors, and as wrestling season started up in early October, Brady had talked to Kendell about how much money he makes doing "shed hunting." Shed hunting involves meticulously scouring the dense mountain trails near Yellowstone National Park, looking for horns that elk, moose, mule deer and other male animals lose once a year. So they started hanging out after practice. That's what it had done for Brady and Kendell. it's violence and then forgiveness, for hours on end, and that can weld two people together almost instantly. Pushing each other on 5-mile runs, sweating and bleeding all over the place, either twisting your friend into a pretzel or getting pretzeled. There's something about being wrestling practice partners that can forge lifelong friendships in six weeks. Kendell was a hardworking sophomore who hadn't cracked the lineup yet. Brady, who'd been a juco All-American as a freshman, was back on the team after taking a year off from college. The two Northwest College wrestlers had known each other for only about a month and a half, but they had become fast friends. So when Brady Lowry stumbled upon a fresh pile back in October, deep in the thick brush of the Wyoming wilderness near Yellowstone, he turned his head and began to alert Kendell Cummings. WARNING: This story contains graphic descriptions of a grizzly bear attack.Ī GOOD FRIEND never lets his buddy step in bear crap.
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