Are they claiming the griz are a new phenomon, or that they've been there a long time?
They didn't say. Just rebutted my argument that the nearest established population was several hundred miles away by saying that grizzlies are known to travel long distances. And that I shouldn't trust what F & G has to say because they hide information. Also something about the local people knowing the truth, but I had pretty much stopped listening by that point so I'm not sure about those details.
It's my impression that they brought up grizzlies to try and make me even more afraid of hiking without a firearm, without really knowing one way or the other. The entire conversion had the overtone of me not knowing as much as them about wildlife in the Sawtooths because I wasn't a hunter. The other theme is that one should be afraid, very afraid of the wolf.
To be fair, it was only one of the 2 hunters that claimed there were grizzlies in the Sawtooths. The other one said he didn't know and it wasn't worth arguing over. He just wanted to stop talking and start hunting!
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