I published this book almost a year ago. I don't know if the subject matter will hold interest for anyone in this forum, but I figured I'd toss it out there for anyone interested. It's a Kindle book, so you need an E-reader of some kind or the free Amazon App for PC's. In 1998 I was mauled by a Kodiak bear here on my home island. Below is the Amazon blurb for the book, with a couple of short excerpts to give you some "flavor" of what the book contains. It's still selling very well and the reviews have been very good. A Kodiak Bear Mauling: Living and Dying with Alaska's Bears In 1998 the author survived a horrific mauling by a Kodiak brown bear. This is the story of that event along with additional tales and personal observations about these coastal giants. The book includes a number of graphic photographs taken within minutes of the actual event, along with the authors personal photos of bears and other Alaskan wildlife. From the book: Meeting the eyes of a grizzly is an interesting experience because those eyes hold real intelligence and power. The eyes of other common Alaskan animals (such as moose or caribou) reveal little beyond fear or vague curiosity. A ruminant's brain has very little room for much beyond eating, fleeing and mating. Your attention is drawn to other things on such an animal; the antlers perhaps... A bear is a different proposition altogether. The wide brown eyes of this predator are expressive and calculating and meeting them is to know that you are looking into the mind of a thinking animal. I can't stress that difference enough, though it's difficult to articulate this to people who haven't had the experience. When meeting a grizzly at close range you generally find yourself waiting for the animal to make a decision - to leave, hopefully. Your eyes will lock with those of the bear and there will be some sort of visceral communication taking place. You can watch the play of emotion and calculation cross the animals face while he evaluates you and tries to decide what your presence means and what he should do about it. ... ...Perhaps the yelling attracted her to my face because she now grabbed my skull, her upper canines sinking into my right eye socket and cheek respectively, while her lower jaw enveloped the back of my head. The sensation was incredible, as if my head was in a powerful vise. My vision began to narrow and darken while a roaring sound grew deep inside my head. It was like being under water too long, holding your breath and fighting to get back to the surface, everything beginning to get dark. I remember thinking; "This is it, this is how it all ends..." Yet, as this went on I was also pulling and turning my head away with as much force as I could muster until suddenly it (my head) popped free with a grating sound that I could sense internally rather than hear audibly. Her upper canines had ripped loose from my eye socket and face leaving two furrows from the entry points well into my hairline. I was partially scalped, but she hadn't "popped" my head... .... The Kodiak archipelago is tucked within the long reach of the Alaskan coast like a group of badly behaved children in the arms of a somewhat aloof mother. Thumbing its nose at the latitude of its arctic parent, cheeky Kodiak bathes in the waters of warm southern currents which give the island a temperate maritime climate seemingly more appropriate to locales far to the south. In the same way that the Gulf Stream warms the British Isles, the Kuroshio current begins in warmer latitudes far to the south to move northward along the rim of the Pacific and then east to the Gulf of Alaska to surround Kodiak with a warm wet noose. Above this warm river in the cold northern sea is another warm river of moist low pressure air. These warm sea currents and air masses move north to collide with much colder waters and arctic high pressure air along the Aleutian Islands. This remote island chain marks the boundary between the genteel Pacific and its rowdy and temperamental arctic neighbor, the Bering Sea. The enormous temperature and pressure extremes in this "Birthplace of the Winds" spawn a seemingly endless series of cyclonic low pressure storms which spin to the northeast to lash Kodiak with the rain and fog which envelope it for much of the year. That wet marine climate ends abruptly when it meets the high coastal mountains ringing the Alaska mainland. View attachment 18146 A Kodiak Bear Mauling: Living and Dying with Alaska's Bears: R. Keith Rogan: Amazon.com: Kindle Store
While it is not in our ballpark so to speak, I salute any published author here on the forum. Good show! (even if its on one of those new-fangled electric do-dads )
Combat related? Well maybe... There was some shooting involved or I wouldn't be alive to write the book. All in all, it was like dancing with a very hairy, large, passionate, drunk and "stabby" Alaskan woman; an experience that any sailor who has ever gone on shore leave in Nome can relate to.
KB, I worked for the Warden Service, Parks Canada in Banff National Park for 3 years in the '70s and I know only too well the strength and intelligence of grizzly bears. I came a whisker away from being dragged through the bars of a bear trap by an enraged mother bear due to my own in attentiveness. Over the course of those three years, three people were mauled and killed by grizzlies. I can't imagine what you must have went through. I look forward to reading your book. Thanks for posting the link. BD
Spoke with some folk at a pub who said they were wary after shooting a deer /moose whatever. They seem to think that bears were attracted to the sound of gunfire. Bear knew there'd be easy food at the source of shot, and would steal the meat....Also some old timers who said some bears knew they were being hunted, and would end up behind the guys who were hunting it.
They are very smart and they do, absolutely, come to deer, caribou, moose kills. Most of the time they are well mannered enough to just hang around and clean up the gut pile after you leave. I had one come and take a blacktail buck from me and I tell that story in the book. He just came in like a ghost, took one look at me and carried the deer away. I let him have it. The grizzles here are enormous. The adult males average close to 1000 pounds and a big trophy male will go over 1200 pounds. You really don't want to mess with an animal that big and most of the time, they don't want anything to do with you either so it works out OK.
