>>2804667I said Canada lol. The 2000-3000 population can be along the entire range, I have no doubt that a creature like that could range that far without trouble. Mountain lions will go from WA to AK for the hell of it, then go back for winter. No reason a 9 foot apex predator hominid couldn't either.
As for killing and capturing - yes. Allegedly one was captured and bred with (female) in western Russia back in the 1700's-ish time frame. One of the accounts from a pioneer in AK who claimed to have killed one around 1920 stated that he was overcome with fear of reprisal on seeing what he had actually killed, and chopped the body up and tossed it into the creek. Reasonable, IMO, when you're months away from civilization, and the same would be true for any frontiersman then - and most today. You have to sleep. You aren't an apex predator hominid likely coming in around 600-800 lbs. One of the early deaths in the Portlock account was a lumberjack who was hit in the head with a 130lb piece of equipment (that was then tossed off into the woods).
It's nice to think that guns are the great equalizer, but they're not magic. I know a guy who shot a Kodiak grizzly with a modern bottleneck magnum (a .300 RUM iirc) through the heart. The bear turned, closed the 100 yards, and died on top of him. When we're talking creatures who would by reason have to be more intelligent, and people with much less powerful 100+ year old cartridge designs - it's not an easy or given equation. The Sierra sounds were recorded in the dead of night. If you're a nigger on the frontier with blackpowder weapons, are you going to want to tussle with something that will probably come within firelight range before you can shoot?
