I’m from Perth, Australia & in the early 70’s, a mentally ill/tripping on lsd, man, jumped over the fence into the polar bear enclosure at the zoo here. Needless to say it didn’t end very well for the man. It was quite cruel to have had a polar bear here as it gets very hot & never ever is cold enough for them to thrive at all.
Great interview, and I'm glad everyone made it out of that experience alive and well! The way Steve described those moments, I'm thinking the bear must've been fixated on someone other than him, or else it probably would've been on top of him before anyone could do anything about it. That might be what's really eating at him, but it was bound to blindside someone; this time it just happened to be him. He's probably gone back in his mind and kicked himself for where he decided to sit in the camp in relation to where the bear might reenter, among other things, like how he mentions misinterpreting the bear crap. I've watched all the Meat Eater episodes and absolutely love 'em, but there's no surefire plan to how wild creatures react in some of those. They've been blindsided by turkeys, deer, elk, all sorts of things coming in from different directions than anticipated, so I hope he isn't beating himself up over that. I've got a couple questions that didn't get addressed in the interview, though. Did the bear run right off after Janis hit it with the trekking poles, then? Was Ryan Callaghan there for this one (he always seems to be around when these things (bear charge, moose charge) happen, lol). I also found Steve's description of how people react at accident scenes to be really insightful – how some people just lock onto a severed hand and that's all they see, or they just see chaos all around and can't focus – that's something you likely can't teach, but I have a feeling if I ever end up in a situation like that, I'm going to remember what he said here. Once again, great interview!
As an ARMY Combat Veteran with 4 tours overseas you will be surprised what you can get conditioned too!
I’m from Perth, Australia & in the early 70’s, a mentally ill/tripping on lsd, man, jumped over the fence into the polar bear enclosure at the zoo here. Needless to say it didn’t end very well for the man. It was quite cruel to have had a polar bear here as it gets very hot & never ever is cold enough for them to thrive at all.
Great interview, and I'm glad everyone made it out of that experience alive and well! The way Steve described those moments, I'm thinking the bear must've been fixated on someone other than him, or else it probably would've been on top of him before anyone could do anything about it. That might be what's really eating at him, but it was bound to blindside someone; this time it just happened to be him. He's probably gone back in his mind and kicked himself for where he decided to sit in the camp in relation to where the bear might reenter, among other things, like how he mentions misinterpreting the bear crap. I've watched all the Meat Eater episodes and absolutely love 'em, but there's no surefire plan to how wild creatures react in some of those. They've been blindsided by turkeys, deer, elk, all sorts of things coming in from different directions than anticipated, so I hope he isn't beating himself up over that. I've got a couple questions that didn't get addressed in the interview, though. Did the bear run right off after Janis hit it with the trekking poles, then? Was Ryan Callaghan there for this one (he always seems to be around when these things (bear charge, moose charge) happen, lol). I also found Steve's description of how people react at accident scenes to be really insightful – how some people just lock onto a severed hand and that's all they see, or they just see chaos all around and can't focus – that's something you likely can't teach, but I have a feeling if I ever end up in a situation like that, I'm going to remember what he said here. Once again, great interview!
I call this the the Shinning Room.
So true, we spend all our time thinking about what we will do in that one moment.
It the heat of the moment your natural instincts kick in and it’s either fight or flight.