Monster Killer Grizzly Bear Slain in Alaska

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World's largest Grizzly Bear shot and killed: ate at least 2 people

veblo.com — January 8, 2009

The bear wieghed more than 1,600 pounds. It stood 12' 6″ high at the shoulder, 14′ to the top of its head. It’s the largest grizzly bear ever recorded in the world. But it was shot to death by a U.S. Forest Ranger who was out deer hunting last week when the huge bear charged him from about 50 yards away. The ranger emptied his 7mm Magnum semi-automatic rifle into the bear and it finally dropped, only a few feet in front of him. The bear was still alive so the ranger reloaded and shot it several times in the head, to end any suffering.

The bear will be stuffed and mounted, and placed on display at the Anchorage airport to remind tourists of the risks involved when in the wild. "Confronting a 14', 1600 pound Grizzly bear in the backwoods is not something the average tourist wants to experience," said the Game and Wildlife commissioner.

After analyzing the contents of the bear's stomach, scientists with the Fish and Wildlife Commission established that the bear had killed at least two humans in the past 72 hours including a missing hiker.

The US Forest Service, backtracking from where the bear had originated, found the hiker's 38-caliber pistol emptied. Not far from the pistol were the remains of the hiker. The remains of the other missing person have not been found.

Although the hiker fired six shots and managed to hit the grizzly four times (the Service ultimately found four 38 caliber slugs along with twelve 7mm slugs inside the bear's body), he only wounded the bear and probably angered it.

The bear killed the hiker an estimated two days prior to the bear's own death. "There is no question this was a dangerous bear," said the commissioner.

An average sized man would be level with the bear's navel when standing upright. The bear would look him in the eye when it walked on all fours! This particular bear, standing on its hind legs, could look in the bedroom windows of a two-story house.

When informed of the bear killing, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin claimed to have tracked the bear herself days earlier, when out moose hunting, forcing it out of its lair. The bear fled when the Governor confronted it and yelled, "Back off - dammit. I'm the Governor and a probable Republican candiate for Pesident, and I could have you delisted with one stroke of my pen." (to be delisted means removed from the endangered species list)

Governor Palin declined to elaborate, citing the Governor-Bear privilege, honored only in Alaskan law, stemming from ancient traditions of the Aleuts, the native inhabitants of Alaska. The Aleuts consider the Grizzly bear sacred, like the cow in India, and believe it is a sacrilege to kill them or report their presence to the U.S. Forest Service. As a result, the protected bears have grown to enormous sizes. The Grizzlies have grown even larger in recent years, as a result of eating Twinkies, Hostess cup cakes, donuts, tostitos and hot dogs with dill relish, all washed down with beer pilfered from the campsites of tourists.