Bear Attack

[The Supreme Canuck]

You guys on the American continent are definately not on the end of the food chain.You be careful SB.

Which is why, if I ever go camping up north, I'm bringing a rather sizeable rifle. I don't want to use it, but if a big, angry, furry thing is running at me, all bets are off.

[Riverkilt]

Sad, a 6yo child was killed, what a horrible way to die.

Have read lots on bear avoidance and bear defense. Wonder what would/could have happened if someone there was kilted and could have "unkilted" and swung their unwrapped kilt in full circles over their head.

Would it have driven off the bear?....or attracted the bear....

Need more research on bears and swinging kilts....could it be that hiking kilted would turn out to be the best bear defense?

Really....

I'm serious here....

I really am.

Ron

[Southern Breeze]

Sad, a 6yo child was killed, what a horrible way to die.

Have read lots on bear avoidance and bear defense. Wonder what would/could have happened if someone there was kilted and could have "unkilted" and swung their unwrapped kilt in full circles over their head.

Would it have driven off the bear?....or attracted the bear....

Need more research on bears and swinging kilts....could it be that hiking kilted would turn out to be the best bear defense?

Really....

I'm serious here....

I really am.

Ron

Maybe Andrew can research this while on his upcoming hike.

In the light of this attack I've gotten nervous about bears. I've encounterd several and by the time I knew they were there they were headed the other way.

[mddock58]

Not always, but usually the error with Bears, is our own ignorance.

I have seen many campers and hikers ignore the warnings and leave food too close to their camp, and even in their tents assuming a bear will not bother them.

Then when they do encounter a bear, they think they can scare it away, or the bear looks so cute, they get too close!

I have even seen some prople complain to the rangers in the park about the bears, when their own stupidity caused the problem in the first place.

Now I don't know the specifics of this case, and I am not judging them, but there are many reasons that could have caused the "attack", and it is extremely sad that a child died because of it.

[AckZel]

I saw a document from TV which told that bear population in US is getting out of hands. Because there is too much bears to fit in the wildlife they get too used to people and this type of thing can happen. That is not normal bear behaviour because bears should fear people. I have seen wild bear once and it took off when we tried to get closer for a good photo. We got only about 100m away. I think US is really in need of cutting down bear population. And supporting that is the fact that some of you have seen "several" bears. Bears should be very hard and rare to spot in the wildlife. I've been wandering forests through whole my short but adventurous life and only seen a bear once. Some people here can live in forests all their lives never seeing one. And boy, do we have forests! (75% of surface area) It really looks like there just is too much bears in US.

[Riverkilt]

"I have seen wild bear once and it took off when we tried to get closer for a good photo. "


Um....Ackwell...buddy....this is what gets human beings eaten by bears...lucky it didn't take off towards you for a snack.

Ron

[macwilkin]

I have even seen some prople complain to the rangers in the park about the bears, when their own stupidity caused the problem in the first place.

Same here -- there is a reason why we rangers have to enforce park rules and regulations -- it's called the safety of our visitors, even the ones who do not understand why.

A sad story...my heart goes out to the family, especially the 6 year-old. Sad.

T.

[bubba]

The first thing to do is limit encroachment on the bears habitat. When I was a kid my dad, grandfather and I hunted alot. The areas we hunted had bears and we saw them on a regular basis and we kept our distance. Those same areas today are subdivisions, strip malls and suburbs. The problem isn't too many bears, it's way too many people in the bears territory.

[AckZel]

Um....Ackwell...buddy....this is what gets human beings eaten by bears...lucky it didn't take off towards you for a snack.

Well, I know how that sounds but we were intensionally taking nature photos. And bears are not dangerous if you know how they behave in normal environment. They are dangerous only when irritated or when they have brood. Bears getting used to people is a problem. But bears won't normally attack humans. Quite a docile animal.

[The Supreme Canuck]

Still an' all...

Big bloody rifle. Just sayin'.

I doubt you'd need to do more than fire into the air.