I'm going to make two quick points and then drop out of this thread.
First, the facts of life about bearanoia:
Horror stories and web myths lead people to do and say some pretty stupid things about bears. Heads-up woodscraft, common sense and experience will almost always keep you out of trouble. Do your part in relations with bears, and you're more likely to get hurt in your own home than by a bear. Campfire ghost stories are fun for scaring kids, right up to the point that they panic and run into trees.
And second, a source for factual information about living with bears:
In many parts of the continent, local residents coexist quite successfully with bears with almost no injuries on either side of the species divide. This site encapsulates a lot of really useful information about how that is done, as well as providing some links to other good info sources, including some great ones in Canada.
I'm in the "crowd" that lives successfully with bears. We're an hour from the nearest city deep in grizzly country (aka: coastal brown bears), and we regularly have them in our yard. I can't recall a single outing in which we don't see tracks or bears, often at fairly close range. And in 35 years I've NEVER had to shoot one. They've scared me silly a few times, but thank god they're there. I'll shoot one if I have to, but thankfully that's never happened. They're a part of "wilderness" to me, which is why I choose to live where I do. Life would be really sad without them. I just wish folks would devote as much time and effort to learning how to live with them as they invest in collecting horror stories, true or not.
This is perfectly true.
The "almost no injuries" is interesting as well.
This is like being in a firefight and having your unit take "light casualties". This is perfectly true unless you are one of the people who got whacked. Then the casualties are 100% for you but you no longer care.
There is always the one time that is the exception. You only die once. You get killed you don't learn from the experience. Some people never figure this out.
Lots of things about bears are not myths and you know this from bear attacks in Alaska by blacks and browns.
Dad had a place near Healy and was building house. He was having trouble with a black bear getting into stuff. He got a chance and shot him. Basically a grown cub. He put him on his flatbed trailer and was going to skin him. He was then charged out of the brush by an old sow. He had his rifle handy and shot her as well.
Then we had the bears that used to live off the dump at Delt Jct and would get into anything plastic within a mile of so of the dump. Take 5 gal jugs of diesel fuel into the trees and bite holes in them. Get into cases of oil and bite the plastic bottles. Anything that they thought might be edible. Its kind of a pain in the ass and one would *think* diesel fuel would be something you could leave in your pickup overnight.
I don't trust bears, black brown or otherwise. Don't trust mountain lions either, was given a first had account of a hunter having to shoot one here in MT in self defense. How do you get away for something like that is after YOU? Its not possible in most cases.
A friend used to work at a "Dude" ranch on the north border of Yellowstone Park and shot several black bear sometimes several a year. He had a griz in his kitchen once. Fortunately the bear left, taking out a window frame and all when he opened the door. But I sure as $#*! would not want to bet my life on the bear running in such a situation but this time it did. He did not know the bear was there when he opened the hall door.
One black he shot off the side of the cook house when it was trying to get into the upstairs with the (screaming) girls that worked as maids.
Then there was the state or fed employee in AK that had her arms and legs eaten off by a black bear. IIRC this was somewhere between Fairbanks and Delta Jct.
There is an area in Wyoming where rifle fire is now a "dinner bell" for grizzlys like it in some places in AK. They are also stalking and attacking bow hunters using cow calls for elk in MT and WY. Several cases in the past 2-3 years. Hard to use a bear bell when trying to hunt elk.
All the experience in the world is not going to make a difference if the bear is HUNTING you or you come around the bend of the trail and come across an bear that is spring loaded for whatever reason. One person might live as you do for 35 years and never have a serious problem. The next person in the same neighborhood could get mauled this first week just from bad luck.
There is no sense in shooting every bear you see out of fright or stupidity. But going around thinking the woods savy and experience will solve every problem its also stupid.
I used to work for an outfitter in MT. They had bears in camp trouble one night (before my time and I was working in the 1980s) about 3 miles north of Yellowstone. Some time later the local fish cop asked Bo and his son that since the statute of limitations was now up how many bears did they actually shoot. The some piped up and asked the warden how many bears it took to be a felony. I understand they shot 5.
I know a man who has studied bears and written books. He told me that there is an old boar in Glacier that hates him and if he finds where he is camped he ALWAYS wrecks everything while he is gone doing field work. He has had to stay up all night and throw burning sticks and then leave when it was light. He refuses to carry a gun. Its his choice. He told me if a bear gets him it will be this one.
When you go into the woods with large carnivores around you become part of the food chain. Just a fact. That they generally choose not to kill and eat you does not make attacks on other people a myth.
Dan
