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https://bbc.in/2tUvVaW

“A father died protecting his children in a rare polar bear attack in Canada's northernmost territory of Nunavut. Aaron Gibbons, 31, was on Sentry Island, a popular fishing and hunting spot on the west coast of Hudson Bay, when he encountered the bear on 3 July. A relative said he "died a hero", telling his daughters to run while he put himself between them and the bear.

The bear was apparently killed later. Man went unarmed against the largest land-based predator in the world to protect his kids.

Should have thrown his least favorite at the bear. He could always make a new sister for the survivors, can't make a new father.

 Sinful Hero wrote:
Man went unarmed against the largest land-based predator in the world to protect his kids.

True love, there. Horrible situation for all involved. Hopefully those kids will be able to move on from such a traumatic situation. Jeez I can't even imagine how that sort of attack would stick with you as a memory/nightmare.


In happier animal news, 3 poachers were eaten by a pride of lions in South Africa!

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-44728507

 DarkTraveler777 wrote:

 Sinful Hero wrote:
Man went unarmed against the largest land-based predator in the world to protect his kids.

True love, there. Horrible situation for all involved. Hopefully those kids will be able to move on from such a traumatic situation. Jeez I can't even imagine how that sort of attack would stick with you as a memory/nightmare.


In happier animal news, 3 poachers were eaten by a pride of lions in South Africa!

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-44728507

Is that really happy news though? Many poachers are really poor people that poach and sell rare animals out of desperation, because it is really the only way they could make money.
Maybe those dead poacher's families will starve now.
Poaching is bad of course, but there is nothing happy about dead poachers.

 feeder wrote:
Should have thrown his least favorite at the bear. He could always make a new sister for the survivors, can't make a new father.

Lovely sentiment there......

 Iron_Captain wrote:

 DarkTraveler777 wrote:

 Sinful Hero wrote:
Man went unarmed against the largest land-based predator in the world to protect his kids.

True love, there. Horrible situation for all involved. Hopefully those kids will be able to move on from such a traumatic situation. Jeez I can't even imagine how that sort of attack would stick with you as a memory/nightmare.


In happier animal news, 3 poachers were eaten by a pride of lions in South Africa!

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-44728507

Is that really happy news though? Many poachers are really poor people that poach and sell rare animals out of desperation, because it is really the only way they could make money.
Maybe those dead poacher's families will starve now.
Poaching is bad of course, but there is nothing happy about dead poachers.

Yeah, I was waiting for this response.

Don't care. Poachers are scum and deserve to be shat out a lion's rear. When there are more rhinos, elephants, and [insert endangered/threatened species here] than humans, then I'll worry about poachers being eaten. But, people trying to make a buck off of killing an endangered animal don't get any sympathy for me.

And, I am not sure if those poachers were really the "poor villager just trying to survive" type since they were so well kitted out.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2018/07/alleged-rhino-poachers-eaten-by-lions-south-africa-reserve/

They were armed with, amongst other things, a high-powered rifle with a silencer, an axe, wire cutters, and had food supplies for a number of days—all the hallmarks of a gang intent on killing rhino and removing their horns.

A well-funded group with at least one silenced rifle and days of provisions doesn't sound like some hard up locals. Sounds like professionals who played stupid games and won the ultimate prize.

Assuming they were poachers I'm happy they won't be poaching any more animals, but I still don't relish the fact that they were killed. I don't wish a brutal, painful death on anyone.

Gotta wonder why he was unarmed. A sad story, but that's real freaking risky going out in territory like that unarmed.

 djones520 wrote:
Gotta wonder why he was unarmed. A sad story, but that's real freaking risky going out in territory like that unarmed.

May have expected a short excursion, and left it in the boat. Article mentions he was usually armed.

 Sinful Hero wrote:

 djones520 wrote:
Gotta wonder why he was unarmed. A sad story, but that's real freaking risky going out in territory like that unarmed.

May have expected a short excursion, and left it in the boat. Article mentions he was usually armed.

Yep, the article mentioned he would have had a rifle on the boat. My personal experience with long guns for bear protection (and what I've seen others do as well) is that the chances of a bear attack are so low that they tend to get left behind or out of reach. It's real easy to think "I'll just set it down here by my feet while I [fish/pick berries/whatever]". Then next thing you know you're thirty feet away.

I sure feel bad for this guy's family. I hope his daughters got away without having to see it happen.

 Dakka Flakka Flame wrote:

 Sinful Hero wrote:

 djones520 wrote:
Gotta wonder why he was unarmed. A sad story, but that's real freaking risky going out in territory like that unarmed.

May have expected a short excursion, and left it in the boat. Article mentions he was usually armed.

Yep, the article mentioned he would have had a rifle on the boat. My personal experience with long guns for bear protection (and what I've seen others do as well) is that the chances of a bear attack are so low that they tend to get left behind or out of reach. It's real easy to think "I'll just set it down here by my feet while I [fish/pick berries/whatever]". Then next thing you know you're thirty feet away.

I sure feel bad for this guy's family. I hope his daughters got away without having to see it happen.

Drill Sergeant Lewis always used to say "It's better to have and not need than to need and not have." If I go on any sort of excursion that may potentially involve large carnivores in proximity of my children, I'll be armed better than I was during my deployment.

 Dakka Flakka Flame wrote:
Assuming they were poachers I'm happy they won't be poaching any more animals, but I still don't relish the fact that they were killed. I don't wish a brutal, painful death on anyone.

Death by Lion would probably be pretty quick, considering their killing technique is a bite to the neck of their prey. With the size and power of a Lions jaws, spinal cord damage if not complete severance is highly likely.

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 Dakka Flakka Flame wrote:
Assuming they were poachers I'm happy they won't be poaching any more animals, but I still don't relish the fact that they were killed. I don't wish a brutal, painful death on anyone.

Death by Lion would probably be pretty quick, considering their killing technique is a bite to the neck of their prey. With the size and power of a Lions jaws, spinal cord damage if not complete severance is highly likely.

If my memory serves me correct. Lions kill their prey by crushing the wind pipe - you suffocate when you get killed by a lion. That's like maybe...20-30 seconds of pain and fear. Possibly before the neck bite there was a little bit of slashing with claws. It is pretty quick.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Sinful Hero wrote:
https://bbc.in/2tUvVaW

“A father died protecting his children in a rare polar bear attack in Canada's northernmost territory of Nunavut. Aaron Gibbons, 31, was on Sentry Island, a popular fishing and hunting spot on the west coast of Hudson Bay, when he encountered the bear on 3 July. A relative said he "died a hero", telling his daughters to run while he put himself between them and the bear.

The bear was apparently killed later. Man went unarmed against the largest land-based predator in the world to protect his kids.

I'm pretty upset they killed the bear. Polar bears have it rough - they will probably go extinct in our life times. No easy way to solve this problem though - in the end if they start to compete with man for land - they will be destroyed.

 Xenomancers wrote:

I'm pretty upset they killed the bear. Polar bears have it rough - they will probably go extinct in our life times. No easy way to solve this problem though - in the end if they start to compete with man for land - they will be destroyed.

Only solution is to tackle climate change and save their habitat.

Problem is there are powerful political lobbies who do not want that to happen.

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 Xenomancers wrote:

I'm pretty upset they killed the bear. Polar bears have it rough - they will probably go extinct in our life times. No easy way to solve this problem though - in the end if they start to compete with man for land - they will be destroyed.

Only solution is to tackle climate change and save their habitat.

Problem is there are powerful political lobbies who do not want that to happen.

I am on board with that - though I am not sure any changes we make will be soon enough to save polar bears. They are on the brink.

 Xenomancers wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 Xenomancers wrote:

I'm pretty upset they killed the bear. Polar bears have it rough - they will probably go extinct in our life times. No easy way to solve this problem though - in the end if they start to compete with man for land - they will be destroyed.

Only solution is to tackle climate change and save their habitat.

Problem is there are powerful political lobbies who do not want that to happen.

I am on board with that - though I am not sure any changes we make will be soon enough to save polar bears. They are on the brink.

It’s possible they may still adapt and fill a similar niche to Kodiak/Grizzly Bears in far northern forests.

 Xenomancers wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 Xenomancers wrote:

I'm pretty upset they killed the bear. Polar bears have it rough - they will probably go extinct in our life times. No easy way to solve this problem though - in the end if they start to compete with man for land - they will be destroyed.

Only solution is to tackle climate change and save their habitat.

Problem is there are powerful political lobbies who do not want that to happen.

I am on board with that - though I am not sure any changes we make will be soon enough to save polar bears. They are on the brink.

Yeah. It may already be too late for the polar bear. Even if we Humans suddenly all stopped contributing to climate change, natural factors will still continue to warm up the Earth where we left off. We have massively accelerated these processes, but they aren't going to be stopped if we stop. Polar bears are just too overspecialised too survive in the wild. Best we can do I think is to preserve the Polar bear under Human control to prevent it from going extinct and look to save habitats and species for which it is not too late yet. But ultimately, climate change is an irreversible process. By being more mindful of our impact on the environment, we can greatly slow it, but we can't stop it.

 Sinful Hero wrote:

 Xenomancers wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 Xenomancers wrote:

I'm pretty upset they killed the bear. Polar bears have it rough - they will probably go extinct in our life times. No easy way to solve this problem though - in the end if they start to compete with man for land - they will be destroyed.

Only solution is to tackle climate change and save their habitat.

Problem is there are powerful political lobbies who do not want that to happen.

I am on board with that - though I am not sure any changes we make will be soon enough to save polar bears. They are on the brink.

It’s possible they may still adapt and fill a similar niche to Kodiak/Grizzly Bears in far northern forests.

There has to be a niche to fill though. It is possible that polars could coexist in these areas but Grizzlys I feel are more likely to run them out. Polars might be larger but Grizzlys are very aggressive towards polar bears. I've seen many examples of this in film. It never seems like the Polars have the upper hand when they meet. There have been some reports of them breeding together. It will be interesting to see what happens there.

Polarbears have survived previous ice-sheet collapses. They are specialist but also adaptable, and have been found to interbred with grizzly bears as well.

They are doing what most species do during climatic change; migrating. They migrate to areas they can survive in and, whilst they might not thrive, they survive until conditions return to a point where they can spread back to their old ranges once more.


The problem here is that people are a massive barrier. Even if they don't get stopped by fencing, armed borders, urban areas, roads etc....; simply entering an area of increase human habitation and use can increase animal-human conflict.

Events like this can also spark revenge killings, which can mean that many more than the original animal that attacked, get killed off as a result. Even if the bear isn't a man-killer (killing a person doesn't make an animal a human hunter in itself; however we often do treat it as such and adopt a policy to remove any potential individual from populations).



It's a horrible situation where no one wins; the father is lost and the bear is also lost. A no win for anyone involved.

I don't know. The history of life on Earth is an endless cycle of specialists and apex predators dying off only to be replaced by a diversification of the smaller, more prolific and adaptable species.

True, but we've retained many species such as mammoth, woolly rhino and others for a very long time. In fact this is the only interstadial period (period between ice-ages) where we have lost the majority of megafauna of that type; coincidentally its also the one in which humanity has discovered and developed tool use.

Specialist do indeed die-off, however many can linger in small pockets and survive for considerable periods of time until ecosystems change to allow them to expand again.

Bears, being highly mobile, are more likely to be able to find these pocket and survive. Those that quickly die out are often less mobile species that cannot so easily migrate away.



Of course this latter element is going to hit hard right now as humanity is blocking many migratory pathways and even destinations. As a result we are seeing massive loss of species as migration is closed down as an option.

 Overread wrote:
True, but we've retained many species such as mammoth, woolly rhino and others for a very long time. In fact this is the only interstadial period (period between ice-ages) where we have lost the majority of megafauna of that type; coincidentally its also the one in which humanity has discovered and developed tool use.

Specialist do indeed die-off, however many can linger in small pockets and survive for considerable periods of time until ecosystems change to allow them to expand again.

Bears, being highly mobile, are more likely to be able to find these pocket and survive. Those that quickly die out are often less mobile species that cannot so easily migrate away.



Of course this latter element is going to hit hard right now as humanity is blocking many migratory pathways and even destinations. As a result we are seeing massive loss of species as migration is closed down as an option.

True. Humans, being the dominant species on this planet have a massive impact on the survival of other species. But just as easily as we can hunt a species into extinction or destroy a habitat, we could also help to preserve and manage it. It just depends on what, as a species, we are willing to do and whether we are willing to reserve room for other, wild species on our planet or whether we want to use everything for ourselves. This is connected to Human population growth. Our population is growing very rapidly. More people means we need more space which means there is less left for other species. That is potentially devastating for species that are not very mobile, and still highly destructive for species that are, since as you point out, we are everywhere, blocking routes of migration and occupying potential new habitats.
I don't think we really have the will to save animal species. It would mean curbing our own progress and putting a stop on our population growth. I don't think we are willing to do that, it goes against Human nature. It is a sad truth. And as it is happening, I guess we will see stories like in the OP a lot more.

Also, a period between ice ages is called an interglacial. An interstadial is a warmer period within an ice age.

 Iron_Captain wrote:


Also, a period between ice ages is called an interglacial. An interstadial is a warmer period within an ice age.

My years since studying this are showing! Thanks for the correction

 Sinful Hero wrote:
https://bbc.in/2tUvVaW

“A father died protecting his children in a rare polar bear attack in Canada's northernmost territory of Nunavut. Aaron Gibbons, 31, was on Sentry Island, a popular fishing and hunting spot on the west coast of Hudson Bay, when he encountered the bear on 3 July. A relative said he "died a hero", telling his daughters to run while he put himself between them and the bear.

The bear was apparently killed later. Man went unarmed against the largest land-based predator in the world to protect his kids.

Sad. Why is it always the nice people...

But Polar bears are one of few who will actively hunt humans..

They are cute when young but there rather dangerous animals, and more than capable of doing serious harm. They smash through thick ice to hunt seals. Ice a human with a metal tool would struggle to damage. There's alot of power in those bears.

 jhe90 wrote:

 Sinful Hero wrote:
https://bbc.in/2tUvVaW

“A father died protecting his children in a rare polar bear attack in Canada's northernmost territory of Nunavut. Aaron Gibbons, 31, was on Sentry Island, a popular fishing and hunting spot on the west coast of Hudson Bay, when he encountered the bear on 3 July. A relative said he "died a hero", telling his daughters to run while he put himself between them and the bear.

The bear was apparently killed later. Man went unarmed against the largest land-based predator in the world to protect his kids.

Sad. Why is it always the nice people...

But Polar bears are one of few who will actively hunt humans..

They are cute when young but there rather dangerous animals, and more than capable of doing serious harm. They smash through thick ice to hunt seals. Ice a human with a metal tool would struggle to damage. There's alot of power in those bears.

Realstically - grizzly bears are equally capable of doing damage to a human. The issue is Grizzly have developed a natural survival instinct to avoid humans. Not to say they wont sometimes encounter a human because they are hungry and see a bonanza of food that is easy to get to.

Polar bears have straight up been king of the land since about forever. They have no fear of humans. Things like this will continue to happen.

 Sinful Hero wrote:
https://bbc.in/2tUvVaW

“A father died protecting his children in a rare polar bear attack in Canada's northernmost territory of Nunavut. Aaron Gibbons, 31, was on Sentry Island, a popular fishing and hunting spot on the west coast of Hudson Bay, when he encountered the bear on 3 July. A relative said he "died a hero", telling his daughters to run while he put himself between them and the bear.

The bear was apparently killed later. Man went unarmed against the largest land-based predator in the world to protect his kids.

The guy had guts. He was a clear example of a real man, sacrificing himself for his kids. Rest in peace, Mr. Gibbons.



On another note, instances like this is why I always take precautions when I venture into the wild. Usually in the form of a rifle.