Charged with Hunting a Bear with Camera! See Video:

Canadafirst

Canadafirst

Carbonite Member
I was photographing a Grizzly Bear from 30 meters away, standing beside my car.
A Conservation officer shows up and starts yelling. When my back was turned he fires off a Bear Banger.(like a shotgun going off)
This Officer accuses me of stalking and hunting the bear. I was on the side of the road taking pictures, the Grizzly was calm until Smoky the Dipstick shows up and goes NAZI.
Looks like even Parks are turning into Police States.
There are less than 700 Alberta Grizzlies in the wild.
Ranching, Oil & Gas, Ski Hills and Golf courses and Trans Canada Trains are pushing the Alberta Grizzly to extinction.
Photographers don't traumatize Bears. NWO Goose Stepping NAZI Park Rangers do.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbvQ1JBgf0k
 
Crappy that he did that to you, but honestly when I lived in Jasper park I used to see people taking pictures of grizzlies on the side of the road all the time. They would be ten feet from it hid behind their car door (like that's going to do anything). They are probably just cracking down on this type of thing so no one gets hurt...
 
yea that officer was a serious nutcase, I could see his point if you were trying to pose with the bear for shot or feed it, I think he just needed to do something that day to feel important I guess.
 
wow... "You are hunting the bear" WTF??? one of the most ridiculous things I've heard. Harrassment of wildlife how about harrassment of human beings
 
Maybe off topic, but is that soccer ball option near the render bar to turn on the vuvuzelas new?

haha, I got a kick out of that.
 
Wow, Canadafirst, you managed to get some great shots anyway. It's a real bummer about the ranger -- small consolation, but at least the encounter provided you with a pretty interesting story that you were able to document.

Just returned from the Jasper/Banff area myself with a bear story.

Was driving north on 1A when out of the corner of my eye I spied a small black dot amongst the green in a gully. Whipped the car around, parked by the side of the road and grabbed the GH1. It was a black bear maybe 40 yards away and working his way slowly down the gully toward me. So I sat down to stabilize the cam and started shooting.

This was by far the best wildlife footage I'd ever gotten as I just sat there totally still as the bear came slowly toward me. All I could think about was how great this was going to be as his head filled the frame. He was about twenty feet away when it happened. Card write-speed ERROR! Holy Crap! I was cussing up a storm (under my breath cause the bear was still coming towards me) trying to figure out what to do. This had never happened to me before. Tried just starting another clip, but that didn't work. So I'm furiously fumbling with the camera trying to figure this out and, at the same time, half-aware that I'm probably way too close to the bear as he slowly passes by me in the gully just 10 feet away. Finally realized I needed to restart the camera, but by this time the bear was just showing me his butt as he lumbered away into the brush.

I just sat there for awhile totally crushed by the realization that what may have been the best shot of the entire trip was just lost. But, like I said, a write-speed error had never happened to me before so I had this foolish hope that maybe what I'd recorded up until the error was somehow still there. Of course, it wasn't. However the shot of the bear going away from me was successfully recorded. Big whoop. A bear butt.

I was shooting 1080 for the first time and had only ever shot 720 up until this trip. However, I was pretty confident in my cards since I was using Sandisk Class 6 Extreme III from Adorama and they had always been rock solid. Not sure what caused the error, but I never used that card again for the rest of the trip. And after filling 3 more 8GB cards with 1080 footage, that shot remains the only card error I've ever experienced. Go figure. Why not during some dumb scenery shot instead?

If I learned anything from this experience it was that I can get totally lost in the process of getting a great shot; giving little thought to any danger I may be in at the moment. That said, I have some experience with black bears and had it been a grizzly I would have been much more cautious from the start.

Have to say the Canadian Rockies are truly spectacular and the drive from Banff to Jasper has to be one of the most consistently beautiful drives in the world.

Will post some footage once I get time to edit.
 
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Most likely wasn't about you but all the photographers and filmmakers he's dealt with before and he just lumped you into that category.

Grizzly bears are touchy subjects. I know in Yellowstone they try to keep you pretty far back but people keep pushing and you can see the officers getting pissed because someone's going to get tagged by the bear and the bear is going to die if it does tag someone no matter how much the people deserve getting a dose of forrest justice.

But that wasn't your case but like I said, I'm sure he saw the camera and you got the benefit of all the dealings he's had before with other people.
 
wow that officer definately musta had a bad day and you ran into his bad mood by chance....take it light and thanks for sharing but be careful now: if you do file complaint: remove that video! unauthorized recording of a voice is even more punishable than video! I would NOT file complaint and forget about it, take it as local tax and take that audio out of that film!! if you come into contact with a real smartass this video could pose more trouble than the charge for bear stalking ( which is really funny) you can leave a transcript of the said words but take the audio out of the file!
 
I don't mean to be obtuse, but I think your outrage to the conservation officer is unfounded and dangerous.

It is very important that bears don't become accustomed to being approached by people. I think this conservation officer was very reasonable and polite with you. Crying "police state" because he is trying to do his job is a bit excessive.

In rural areas where bears live close with humans, it becomes VERY deadly when bears become used to being approached by humans. In my girlfriend's home town, some of the nicest parks are now off limits during certain times of year due to the bears being too accustomed to people wandering up to them with a camera and leaving garbage laying around. It has lead to many deadly attacks on people and many innocent bears being put down. Using the bear blaster was done to give the bear a negative association of your approach, so that in the future it wont wander into someone's backyard and kill people/get killed.

Furthermore, what you were doing, is definitely definable as 'stalking'. You may have felt that you were a safe distance, but if you can see the bear, it can probably see you. And yes, it is no different from hunting the animal, except when hunting you can protect yourself with your gun, your camera won't help. You were putting yourself at risk.

It is in your best interest, and the interest of the wild animals, to keep humans and animals separate.
 
andrzejkra said:
I don't mean to be obtuse, but I think your outrage to the conservation officer is unfounded and dangerous.

It is very important that bears don't become accustomed to being approached by people. I think this conservation officer was very reasonable and polite with you. Crying "police state" because he is trying to do his job is a bit excessive.

In rural areas where bears live close with humans, it becomes VERY deadly when bears become used to being approached by humans. In my girlfriend's home town, some of the nicest parks are now off limits during certain times of year due to the bears being too accustomed to people wandering up to them with a camera and leaving garbage laying around. It has lead to many deadly attacks on people and many innocent bears being put down. Using the bear blaster was done to give the bear a negative association of your approach, so that in the future it wont wander into someone's backyard and kill people/get killed.

Furthermore, what you were doing, is definitely definable as 'stalking'. You may have felt that you were a safe distance, but if you can see the bear, it can probably see you. And yes, it is no different from hunting the animal, except when hunting you can protect yourself with your gun, your camera won't help. You were putting yourself at risk.

It is in your best interest, and the interest of the wild animals, to keep humans and animals separate.
Click to expand...

well at least that's a very civil and reasonable rebuttal....
 
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