Penn's/Hemlock Bear

On Sat, 13 Aug 2005 20:09:55 -0400, "Guyz-N-Flyz"
wrote:


"Cyli" wrote in message
.. .

The odds you'll get mauled are better / worse in a campground where
there's a resident garbage bear than they are out in the woods.
That's even for the wary who know bear rules.
Cyli

Not according to these folks.

"Offensive attacks include all the killings by black bears. These are
generally unprovoked, predatory attacks. Most victims were eaten. Offensive,
predatory attacks have almost always been in remote areas where the bears
had little or no previous contact with people. Black bears that raid
campgrounds or garbage cans are almost never involved. The rarity of the
killings goes along with the non-confrontational, timid disposition that's
been bred into black bears. But why approximately one black bear in 600,000
becomes a killer is a mystery. None of the killers had rabies. Some had
common physical problems. There is no consistent explanation."
(http://www.bear.org/Black/Articles/H...ack_Bears.html)

Mark

Yeah, but those are predatory bears. A whole different forest of
trees. Mostly way up north, like MN, WI, Ontario, etc.. The last
case I heard of in MN or WI was decades ago. The experts find that
they're generally very large bears who probably have gotten into the
habit of eating smaller bears and found the eating to be good.
Predatory bears are very rare. Almost everything you hear about bear
maulings is by ordinary black bears who were startled or otherwise
bothered by humans. Seldom does this result in death because the
bear's real first priority is to get the heck out of there or get back
to his / her food.

Cyli
r.bc: vixen. Minnow goddess. Speaker to squirrels.
Often taunted by trout. Almost entirely harmless.

http://www.visi.com/~cyli
email: lid (strip the .invalid to email)

On Sat, 13 Aug 2005 23:01:19 -0500, Cyli
wrote:

Following up my own post. Distinction to be made between maulings and
killings. You may get mauled on the way to being killed, so a death
would cover both, but most bloody difficulties with bears don't come
to death. The last US death by black bear I recall reading about was
that woman in Tennessee or somewhere in the southern mountains a year
or three back. Husband left her on the trail while he went fishing
and came back to find a bear and cub having a nibble of her dead body.
I don't, in this case, recall if the bear killed her or if it found
her dead or she ran from it and fell and got knocked out. Bear and
cub hunted down and killed in that case.



Cyli
r.bc: vixen. Minnow goddess. Speaker to squirrels.
Often taunted by trout. Almost entirely harmless.

http://www.visi.com/~cyli
email: lid (strip the .invalid to email)