Hunter carries orphaned polar bear cub home on snowmachine

[Arctic Dave]

James Tazruk spotted the polar bear 40 miles outside his hometown of Point Lay, high above the Arctic Circle. It was all alone, he said.

"We were out (looking) for caribou or anything. Wolverine. Whatever we could find, and we run into that bear," said Tazruk, who as an Inupiaq subsistence hunter is generally allowed under federal law to take polar bears. It was last Monday and he was hunting with a partner from the village.

Tazruk fired his rifle from 100 yards. A kill. It wasn't until he rolled the bear over that he saw it was a nursing sow. "Got a cub somewhere," Tazruk remembers thinking. The hunters followed the animal's tracks to a den about 1,500 feet away.

Inside was Kali.

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2013/03/19/2832004/hunter-carries-orphaned-polar.html#storylink=cpy



Poor baby. Sad.

[Luminous Animal]

1. Cool, the cub can grow up so that Tazruk can kill it.

Do the Inupiaq eat polar bear?

[KittyWampus]

3. yes, otherwise they wouldn't have killed it. And the man said it was too bad it was a momma bear

Food doesn't actually grow in plastic wrappers and boxes in the grocery store, you know.

[Luminous Animal]

6. Cute Kitty. I grew up in a farmer hunter community of 2000. Nobody shot a bear because

nobody ate a bear because the taste of bear was foul and we needed no other part of the bear for survival. So, I am curious, are polar bears necessary for subsistence in the Inupiaq community.

[Webster Green]

30. I tried bear meat once up in Humboldt County, CA.

It was about the nastiest thing I've ever eaten.

Now, those wild boars on the other hand.....best meat I ever had.

[Arctic Dave]

4. Yes, they do eat them.

Along with just about anything that they come across. Living in a village you have very little options of what you get to eat that isn't flown in.

[Luminous Animal]

8. Well there you go. They saved the cub so the cub can grow into a big bear

to be eaten. I've no problem with hunting for food. And I have no problem an "aw" story but this is not one.

[Arctic Dave]

10. Who knows, maybe the bear will grow up to eat the hunter.

He is part of the food chain too.

[Luminous Animal]

12. True. And that happens ALL the time.

[Arctic Dave]

14. People are mauled every year in Alaska.

There were several the last few years.

[Luminous Animal]

15. Oddly enough, As a San Franciscan, I am good friends with 5 people who grew

up in Alaska (and three still live there). I know that people do get mauled. More people in the U.S. are killed by pigs per percentage of the population than they are polar bears.

[Arctic Dave]

16. That is probably a correct percentage.

Imagine how unique you would be to have the honor of a bear mauling.

[Luminous Animal]

24. Given my sense of humor, I'd prefer pig death over bear death...

It would make a more humorous obituary. My 23 year old daughter agrees.

[Arctic Dave]

25. I would think the Death by Pig would be a little more painful.

A bear would be pretty quick.

However, if by Death by Pig means eating vast amounts of bacon then I would much rather that be the way to go.

[Luminous Animal]

29. Hmmm. I'm wondering. Do pigs, due to the lack of killing tools...

sharp teeth and claws, do their best when attacking to disable a person by trampling the fuck out of a person as quick as possible in order to ensure a quick death and thus a leisurely munch. And do polar bears just say, fuck it and sit on your legs while they rip your arm off and ignore your agonized screams.

[Arctic Dave]

32. I think it goes something like this.

?a=1106736584721

[KittyWampus]

2. Glad hunters took time to bring cub back.

[Arctic Dave]

5. Yeah. It was unfortunate but he did the right thing by

looking for the cub.

[pipoman]

7. Is it better to die young and free or old and captive?

[Arctic Dave]

9. Either way you're dead.

[pipoman]

18. One just takes much longer..do captive polar bears have quality of life?

I don't really know..The last zoo I went to was San Diego and the larger animals don't look all that healthy or happy..

I suspect it is too young to be returned to the wild. Maybe they are raised to maturity then harvested like any other livestock..that wouldn't work because it would eat more than it would produce. No, it must be destined for a zoo or orphanage. It's sad but happens in nature..

[Arctic Dave]

22. The same question could be asked for you and I.

I would think there are zoos that would be happy to receive a polar bear cub.

Hopefully those zoos are equipped to handle a bear and keep it healthy.

[Luminous Animal]

26. I keep my daughter healthy. She's 23 years old and I've never let her outside.

It can be dangerous out their for a human being. Sure, it's not ideal to be cooped up for the rest of her natural life but at least she is alive.

And we live on one of the busiest pedestrian streets in San Francisco we've put up a barred window so people can observe her in her habitat (TV, internet, books, etc.). In a couple of months, we are going to introduce her to a mate.

[Arctic Dave]

31. Awesome.

I understand that millions of people do this with cats, dogs and other various animals also.

[Luminous Animal]

33. Twice a day, I take my domesticated polar bear and daughter

out for walks on their leash.

[Arctic Dave]

34. An assortment of fun for both of them.

?v=1319337193000

[liberal_at_heart]

23. zoos have their purposes too

Sometimes zoos are the only ways to keep a species from going extinct and they have breeding programs and often partner up with national wildlife preserves to release the the babies that have been born into the breeding program.

[liberal_at_heart]

11. Starvation is no way to die

[Luminous Animal]

13. Yep. Being shot is dignified.

[pipoman]

20. Neither is years of torturous treatment by humans..

[bubbayugga]

17. he killed the little cub bear's momma but at least there was a happy ending.

fucking disgusting.

[Arctic Dave]

19. Happy ending for who?

Did you want to see the cub die too?

[bubbayugga]

27. did you miss the six sarcasm tags?

and the "fucking disgusting" comment?

[pipoman]

38. Actually I suspect Arctic Dave

understands the realities of Arctic life for natives and believes that this is the best outcome under the unfortunate conditions which occurred...can't speak for him, just guessing..

[pipoman]

21. It is nature at it's base..

[bubbayugga]

28. It's wrong. Nobody should have legal right to shoot endangered species.

Fuck James Tazruk.

[pipoman]

36. They aren't endangered.

They were placed on the threatened list not because of declining numbers, but because of the possible long term effects of global warming on their habitat. Native American subsistence hunters are allowed to hunt them as they have for millennia (as in this case)...and as they should be..they are not trading in polar bear products, they are using the bears for human survival in desperate climate conditions..

[bubbayugga]

40. Polar bears are in serious danger of going extinct due to global warming

Polar bears are in serious danger of going extinct due to global warming. The bears were the first vertebrate species to be listed by the U.S. Endangered Species Act as threatened by extinction primarily because of global warming.
Rising temperatures in the world’s oceans are causing sea ice to disappear for longer and longer periods during the late summer, leaving polar bears insufficient time to hunt. This is a worldwide problem, and the Endangered Species Act has listed polar bears as threatened everywhere in the world they occur.
the National Wildlife Federation

[pipoman]

41. There is a distinction between "threatened" and "endangered"..

[bubbayugga]

42. "...in serious danger of going extinct"

Killing a polar bear at any time is wrong. Killing a mother polar bear who is raising her cub is about as fucking wrong as you can get regardless of anything else. Are you actually going to argue otherwise? There has always been politics involved with the listing of endangered species and I suspect that that is the case here.

[pipoman]

43. Indigenous people

have harvested polar bears for thousands of years, so no, I don't agree that, "Killing a polar bear at any time is wrong."...any more than hunting any other animal for meat is wrong. Millionaires flying in from Houston to shoot a polar bear, not so much..

[Boudica the Lyoness]

35. James Tazruk is a piece of shit.

What a cowardly and cruel thing James Tazruk did. Killing animal, a mother no less, who was doing her best to keep her baby alive.

Disclaimer; I am a strict vegetarian. No animals die in order for me to live.

[pipoman]

37. LOL

You have no credibility unless you are a vegetarian on the arctic circle..veggies are a bit sparse in those parts..

[Arctic Dave]

39. I'm glad you are a vegetarian.

He doesn't have that option where he lives unless he is a millionaire.