Bears and Goats Don't Mix

*Deceased animal warning.*

Life in the wilderness is exciting every now and then, and this time in a sad way.  

At about 7 o'clock on Friday morning, Kate and Spencer came running in the house exclaiming, "Grandma [the goat] is dead!"  Weston and I ran outside to the back lawn where she was and, sure enough, she was dead.  The back of her was sliced open, her utter was gone, and so were her babies (she was pregnant).  We were so sad.  We loved Grandma the goat, and were excited for her to have kids, which were to come within weeks.  

Then we heard a weak and painful moan.  Twenty feet away, we hadn't noticed before, our goat Lu Lyn was lying in some tall grass.  We ran over to her hoping that whatever had got Grandma had not gotten her.  Her back end was sliced just like Grandma's and her utter was gone, too.  It was like someone was going around slashing everyone's tires with a knife, but in this case it was goat slashing.  Ugh!  I was sad, but mad, too, that something would do this.  We saw other claw marks on her, and figured that it had to be either a bear, a mountain lion, or a wolf.  

We went inside and Weston called the government trapper, who has become a friend of ours from all of the times that he has come out to track wolves and whatever else that have killed our cattle.  He said that he would come out later in the day. 

Weston told us to stay inside, which he has never told us to do before.  It was cold and rainy, so we wanted to be inside anyway. 

When the government trapper came out, he did a necropsy to determine what killed it; it was definitely a bear.  He also recommended to Weston that he stay out to wait for the bear who would most likely be coming back that night to finish the job.  Weston had also called the Idaho Fish and Game guy, who has also become a friend, and he gave Weston the go-ahead to terminate the bear.

We were just sitting down to dinner when Weston looked out the window and said very excitedly, "There's the bear!"  It was broad daylight and like 30 yards from the house in a little ditch thing. 

Weston grabbed his gun, and went quietly outside.  The kids and I ran upstairs to get a better view out of my bathroom window.  

This is what we saw from the window:

The top of the bear's head.  At the time we didn't know that he had pulled another goat down there with him.

Weston sneaked up as close as he dared.

He shot the bear, and pulled Harriet out, who was still alive, but only for a little while longer.  He had gone after her utter, too.  So crazy!

Weston called his parents and asked them to come down and help him pull the bear out.  His grandparents were also there; they were passing through on their way down to Utah, and were there just for the night. 

If you look where the wooden pallet is in the pictures above and below, you can tell how close the bear was to our house.  

This old boar had huge paws.  He also had really worn down teeth.  He was an old crusty bear looking for an easy meal.

Weston says of the picture below that he looks happy, that he definitely was not happy, but he was straining to pick up the approximately 200 pound beast.  He was sad about his goats.  We lost all 3 because of this bear. 

Everyone lost in this situation.  

I hate when things die.  Even if they are wild, and killing our animals, it is still sad.   I just wish that the bear had stayed away in the first place.  I'm glad that we don't have to worry about him anymore, though.  And I am grateful that it was goats, and not people.

I say that I don't like wild animals, and that I wish that they were far, far away, but it is only because I am scared of them.  They are the reason that I don't like to go outside at night, and that I don't like to go camping anymore.  I have a high respect for them.  They are strong and powerful.  Working at the zoo first instilled this in me (getting bitten by a full-grown chimpanzee, and almost getting speared by a gemsbok, and almost kicked by a giraffe, etc.), but living here on the edge of the wilderness has definitely increased that "respect" for them.