07-14-2015, 03:33 PM
Hi friends, I am bumping this thread to share some tragic news about a 2d buddy of mine that you may have seen me mention before.
![[Image: SyZlNqY.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/SyZlNqY.jpg)
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This is Frank, as he had been named before us. I sometimes like to call him By-tor. Contrary to most lore we have regarding bears, Frank had a very gentle and patient demeanor. Rumor has it that his den is quite close to where we live, which would be supported by his sometimes twice daily visits. Frank would come up a deer trail out of a ravine from the state park lands behind my house, and up over a large patch of yucca on a hill where the deer would sleep in the winter. His path, long before we got here, was to come through our backyard through a busted panel of fence, and upon recent discovery, to delight in the black-oil sunflower treats we had left out for the finches and grosbeaks. Then he would pass either across our rickety deck, or on the narrow path beside it, and begin his trash foraging in the neighborhood. Vegan hippies that we are, we rarely produce a bag of trash more than once a week on trash day, but on occasion he did find such treats in our bin as spent edamame shells and an empty bag of sugar.
On the (rare but increasingly more frequent in the heat of summer) foraging excursions that happened in daylight, he was often accompanied by magpies and feral cats enjoying the trash that he strew everywhere. He was always quiet, slow, deliberate. In fact, when food supplies are plenty, bears are extremely docile and tolerant. Bears only are agitated or dangerous in certain situations, which are generally dangerous across most species: males' testosterone fluctuating with the seasons and causing them to spar, or sparring for territory, and females when they are defending their young. Also, if resources are generally scarce and the animals are near starvation, they may get more desperate. Yes, bears have great big teeth and are strong with great long claws, but they do not see humans as a food source unless they are borderline deranged. Bears are not hunters, they are foragers and opportunists. They eat nuts, berries, bugs. They will also fish. Sometimes they will eat carrion. If they find a newborn deer or elk or something else tiny and helpless, they may eat that too. But a human is not a bear meal. The trash buffet (and birdseed) that Frank came to feast upon was his food, it was stable, and he knew that. Is the strewn trash a tedious eyesore? Heck yes it is. Is it a bit nervewrecking the first time you hear a 400lb beast lumbering across your dilapidated deck past your front door and single pane windows? Uh, yeah. Is he even sort of frightening the 10th time you see him? No, he's not. He walks this line between adorable and majestic and it's awesome and fabulous. Even when he's rifling through a discarded, rancid shrimp tray. He's still this magical beast that graces us with his presence and trust.
Friday morning, Frank's body was found "riddled" with bullet holes, about a block away, in a neighbor's front yard. Someone shot at him, multiple times, while he casually walked through a residential neighborhood. His corpse was within a few feet of someone's front door, and that someone had a child in their house (who was the one who found the corpse). Most of the response has been outrage by my neighbors, thankfully - they all appreciated him and recognized his gentle demeanor.
I'd post an article, but you can google "bear poached colorado springs" and find plenty of hits if you'd like to read about it. Some articles have a picture of his corpse - and one that I saw posted today confirmed that it was indeed Frank as we weren't yet sure. Anyway. I'm in mourning for the murder of my friend, and it is very sad. Luckily, the DNR takes poaching extremely seriously, and violations carry a fine up to $20,000 and a felony charge, not to mention any other unlawful discharge of a weapon charges he may face. Of course, justice will never bring Frank back, I just hope they find who it was because they shouldn't be living in between state park land and numerous wildlife reserves if they don't have the patience to deal with a wild animal in their carelessly placed trash.
RIP Frank. We thought you were going to be a part of our lives much longer than you were (and had engineered several Frank-friendly fence designs so that we still had somewhere to keep in our shih tzu). We also have our birdseed dealer engineering some bear-proof feeding devices for us just to see if he can. So you had become more than a welcome nuisance, Frank. I am sure I may see you again as an incarnation as a bird soon because you seem to have grown so fond of our great birdseed. Soon you'll be one of the finchies napping *in* the feeder instead of beneath it. No matter what, godspeed on your next endeavors, Frank. Until we meet again, dear friend!
This is Frank, as he had been named before us. I sometimes like to call him By-tor. Contrary to most lore we have regarding bears, Frank had a very gentle and patient demeanor. Rumor has it that his den is quite close to where we live, which would be supported by his sometimes twice daily visits. Frank would come up a deer trail out of a ravine from the state park lands behind my house, and up over a large patch of yucca on a hill where the deer would sleep in the winter. His path, long before we got here, was to come through our backyard through a busted panel of fence, and upon recent discovery, to delight in the black-oil sunflower treats we had left out for the finches and grosbeaks. Then he would pass either across our rickety deck, or on the narrow path beside it, and begin his trash foraging in the neighborhood. Vegan hippies that we are, we rarely produce a bag of trash more than once a week on trash day, but on occasion he did find such treats in our bin as spent edamame shells and an empty bag of sugar.
On the (rare but increasingly more frequent in the heat of summer) foraging excursions that happened in daylight, he was often accompanied by magpies and feral cats enjoying the trash that he strew everywhere. He was always quiet, slow, deliberate. In fact, when food supplies are plenty, bears are extremely docile and tolerant. Bears only are agitated or dangerous in certain situations, which are generally dangerous across most species: males' testosterone fluctuating with the seasons and causing them to spar, or sparring for territory, and females when they are defending their young. Also, if resources are generally scarce and the animals are near starvation, they may get more desperate. Yes, bears have great big teeth and are strong with great long claws, but they do not see humans as a food source unless they are borderline deranged. Bears are not hunters, they are foragers and opportunists. They eat nuts, berries, bugs. They will also fish. Sometimes they will eat carrion. If they find a newborn deer or elk or something else tiny and helpless, they may eat that too. But a human is not a bear meal. The trash buffet (and birdseed) that Frank came to feast upon was his food, it was stable, and he knew that. Is the strewn trash a tedious eyesore? Heck yes it is. Is it a bit nervewrecking the first time you hear a 400lb beast lumbering across your dilapidated deck past your front door and single pane windows? Uh, yeah. Is he even sort of frightening the 10th time you see him? No, he's not. He walks this line between adorable and majestic and it's awesome and fabulous. Even when he's rifling through a discarded, rancid shrimp tray. He's still this magical beast that graces us with his presence and trust.
Friday morning, Frank's body was found "riddled" with bullet holes, about a block away, in a neighbor's front yard. Someone shot at him, multiple times, while he casually walked through a residential neighborhood. His corpse was within a few feet of someone's front door, and that someone had a child in their house (who was the one who found the corpse). Most of the response has been outrage by my neighbors, thankfully - they all appreciated him and recognized his gentle demeanor.
I'd post an article, but you can google "bear poached colorado springs" and find plenty of hits if you'd like to read about it. Some articles have a picture of his corpse - and one that I saw posted today confirmed that it was indeed Frank as we weren't yet sure. Anyway. I'm in mourning for the murder of my friend, and it is very sad. Luckily, the DNR takes poaching extremely seriously, and violations carry a fine up to $20,000 and a felony charge, not to mention any other unlawful discharge of a weapon charges he may face. Of course, justice will never bring Frank back, I just hope they find who it was because they shouldn't be living in between state park land and numerous wildlife reserves if they don't have the patience to deal with a wild animal in their carelessly placed trash.
RIP Frank. We thought you were going to be a part of our lives much longer than you were (and had engineered several Frank-friendly fence designs so that we still had somewhere to keep in our shih tzu). We also have our birdseed dealer engineering some bear-proof feeding devices for us just to see if he can. So you had become more than a welcome nuisance, Frank. I am sure I may see you again as an incarnation as a bird soon because you seem to have grown so fond of our great birdseed. Soon you'll be one of the finchies napping *in* the feeder instead of beneath it. No matter what, godspeed on your next endeavors, Frank. Until we meet again, dear friend!