Bear info...

[whitefoot_hp]

good ole wikipeida...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_black_bear#Diet

I found this more intersting...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...rica_by_decade

[slowhike]

good ole wikipeida...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_black_bear#Diet

I found this more intersting...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...rica_by_decade

i'll take a serious look at those links later, but i have to tell you, i was thinking about the bear thing while out on my work route today.

ya know, if a curious (or even hungry) bear was sniffing around your hammock one night, i suspect that a person just waking up & moving around a little bit would send it scurrying into the woods.

but if not, just have a good, firm talk w/ the bear. something like this...

i would point my finger over behind the bear & say SCAT... get on out of here!
DON'T MAKE ME GET UP OUT OF THIS HAMMOCK!!!

[whitefoot_hp]

lol...

I think a bear would be scared of a moving hammock, more so than he would be of a tent...

[Nightwalker]

lol...

I think a bear would be scared of a moving hammock, more so than he would be of a tent...

Every bear I've ran into, all two of them, was terrified of me. I guess they're smart like that. And both of them were darned big.

A bear old enough to be large has to have figured out that people are dangerous.

The recent, non-scientific info about bears hunting people for food was ridiculous on its face. In 47 years of country living, I've never once heard of a black bear stalking a person for any reason, much less for use as a drumstick.

Edit: Wikipedia says different. Wikipedia lists two stalking/killings in this century. That's still so rare as not to be worried about at all!

[BillyBob58]

Every bear I've ran into, all two of them, was terrified of me. I guess they're smart like that. And both of them were darned big.

A bear old enough to be large has to have figured out that people are dangerous.

The recent, non-scientific info about bears hunting people for food was ridiculous on its face. In 47 years of country living, I've never once heard of a black bear stalking a person for any reason, much less for use as a drumstick.

Edit: Wikipedia says different. Wikipedia lists two stalking/killings in this century. That's still so rare as not to be worried about at all!

I don't know that it is either non- scientific or ridiculous. It might indeed be rare or at least very unusual, but it certainly happens. There are many examples, that we know of, given by pro-bear experts.

When you say "two in this century", well this century is only 7 years old. And it looks more like at least 5 or 6 or more to me. If the body is consumed, I see a high probability of predation being the reason for the attack. If a baby is snatched off of the back porch, hauled off and eaten, that's predation to me. If an occupied cabin is broken into and the owner killed and partially eaten, that's predation. Of course the term "stalking" might be debatable in some of these incidents, with the more appropriate term might often be "opportunistic".

I believe the Utah incident in June, with the 11 year old dragged out of his tent and killed, was predation for food. And the woman killed in the Smokies while her husband was fishing nearby. And the bear that came out of the woods in NC and marched down to the swimming hole, mauling the woman and one of her children and dragging off and killing the other child, that sounds like stalking/killing to me. Most of these fatal black bear attacks seem to at least be suspicious in this way. Most thru the decades do not seem to be related to surprising a sow with cubs, for instance.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...r-attack_x.htm

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,665194630,00.html

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2005/...r20050907.html

A black bear -- that may have learned to prey on humans -- killed a woman and injured her husband at a provincial park in northern Ontario.

Police and wildlife officials were on the hunt for the wounded bear Wednesday and campers have been ordered out of the back country of Missinaibi Lake Provincial Park.
30-year-old Jacqueline Perry and Mark Jordan, also 30, were attacked at a campsite in the provincial park, about 80 kilometres north of Chapleau.

Ontario Provincial Police said that while the bear was attacking Perry, Jordan managed to stab it a few times with a Swiss Army knife in a frantic effort to keep it from dragging his wife into the woods. Jordan was flown to hospital in Sudbury.

Perry was a family doctor at Grandview Medical Centre in Cambridge, Ont.

( see picture of young lady at link)



All of this and more just in the last 7 years. If you go back thru the decades of the previous century, the story is much the same. There is no doubt that black bears will stalk and kill humans for food. Even if the vast majority of them are afraid enough of humans, probably due to hunting by humans, that they will run if possible. But not all of them. Your odds of injury by lightning may be greater, but we are not unconcerned about lightning. If you are on an exposed ridge in a storm, you are in severe danger and should do something to increase your odds of surviving. If you are alone in bear country, you probably ought to take some precautions, and at least be aware of potential danger.

Or so it seems to me! I'm just saying it is worth considering. The danger of drowing, falling, etc. does not keep me out of the mountains. Neither do bears. But I do take consideration of all of these dangers, and take precautions against them.