Parks Canada received an alert from a GPS device in the Red Deer River Valley west of Ya Ha Tinda Ranch at about 8 p.m. on Friday indicating a bear attack
How does this work? Or is it just another way of saying that someone used a phone with GPS enabled?
Many personal trackers and hiking devices have an SOS button that sends out your position in case of emergency.
I have a Garmin InReach that uses GPS and Iridium satellites to relay text messages. Popular devices for outdoor activities.
I have one. You can create a pre-text that includes GPS coordinates and send it with a couple of clicks, you can type out a text message but it takes a while, or there's a switch on the side that's SOS. Flip it anywhere in the world, and Garmin/Iridium is going to contact emergency services wherever the signal is coming from.
It says further down the article that it was a garmin inreach, Which is a GPS device that can send short messages over the iridium satellite network.
I have no idea and was wondering the same thing.
Some bears will have a GPS tracker on them. Maybe they got a distress call and colocated out with a bear that had a GPS locator?
I guess you could have a dedicated "press if you see a bear" device but I've never heard of it (which doesn't mean much, really).
It was likely a handheld gps device for hiking, they usually have SOS buttons that will alert authorities and send location data
Ok, I haven't used one of those for years.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Parks Canada received an alert from a GPS device in the Red Deer River Valley west of Ya Ha Tinda Ranch at about 8 p.m. on Friday indicating a bear attack, said Natalie Fay, external relations manager for the Banff field unit.
While in the area, the response team encountered a grizzly bear displaying aggressive behaviour, Fay said, leading Parks Canada staff to destroy the animal on-site for public safety.
"This is a tragic incident and Parks Canada wishes to express its sincere condolences to the families and friends of the victims," the statement read.
The fact that the bear was still in the area when the Parks Canada response team arrived on the scene is "highly unusual", said Titchener, especially if the attack was a defensive one.
She advised that travelling in groups, making noise to let animals know you're in the area and carrying bear spray, are all effective ways to prevent attacks from happening.
If people see any signs of bears while they are on a trail, including scat, diggings, claw marks or tracks, or if they see an animal carcass or birds circling, they should leave the area immediately, said Titchener.
The original article contains 1,100 words, the summary contains 195 words. Saved 82%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Dang, that's a shame.
I wonder if they would have been safer with a firearm.
I do a lot of camping in bear country. I've been to Bannf. Bear spray is more effective than a firearm at stopping a brown bear attack. Bears have super sensitive noses and eyes, bear spray is immediate pain.
Bears are extremely muscular from the front, so even if you could manage to shoot one several times from the front, you'd have to use non-expanding bullets like hard cast lead or full metal jacket, which aren't as lethal as expanding bullets like flat nose or hollow points are (for people). Expanding bullets would be stopped by muscle in bears. Non-expanding bullets are slower at killing things (I believe it's illegal to hunt with FMJ around me). Bears can run so quickly that a lethal shot killing a bear in two seconds might not be enough time to stop the bear before it could hurt you. And if a lethal shot took a minute to kill a bear, it's not effective at stopping an attack.
9mm has stopped brown bear attacks plenty of times, but it's risky. Both US Parks Service and Parks Canada say bear spray is more effective at stopping a bear than a firearm. I think Parks Canada still uses 0.303 rifles to rangers, but that might be for polar bear. Canada is really strict on pepper spray and mace, but you can purchase bear spray, even if you're not a citizen. I don't think a non-citizen would be able to hike with a holstered 10mm or .40SW pistol anyways.
Bannf was really crowded when I went there. It's beautiful but the "must see" scenic spots are all filled with Instagrammers. Bears are probably less afraid of people, and I saw plenty of idiots 10 meters from a brown bear with an SLR camera without any precautions at all.
Pro tip: Jasper is very similar terrain, is also a Canadian Park, and is much less crowded. When I was there a couple of years ago, there was zero cell signal an hour before we arrived at the park. You'll need paper maps or offline GPS. If you want wilderness with fewer people, try Jasper Park.
Thanks for the informative post.
Perhaps I should go with bear spray whenever I'm in areas with bear attacks.
I didn't think it would be so effective, but you're right about them having very sensitive noses.
For those unaware bear spray also has a range of up to 50ft. It's not only good for bears... it's a much better alternative to mace since it's much more potent and effective at range.
I bet they would have been safer in their car.
A community for discussing events around the World
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
News !news@lemmy.world
Politics !politics@lemmy.world
World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/