Bear Attack

[Southern Breeze]

I found out about this late yesterday. The campground where this ocurred is only about 40 miles north of where I live. I've camped and hiked there many times.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/...8GVI1D00.shtml

[bubba]

It's a further demonstration that wild animals are unpredictable and since it's Spring some are dangerous now as well. Black bears usually avoid people, but in the Spring the do become aggressive and with humans encroaching more into their turf attacks can be expected.

[Frank McGrath]

This bear had to be different. I have camped in areas where bears live and have never had a problem. This bear may be sick, or was very hungry. They just dont attack for the heck of it. I just hope no others are harmed before this bear is caught. I also wish a speedy recovery for the mother and brother of the victim.

Frank McGrath

[bubba]

I read that they believe they caught the bear in a trap.

[Kilted KT]

sounds like one of two things happened:

1. the campers somehow got between the mother and her cubs. no matter what kinds of firearms yo umay have, this is definitly a very ugly situation

or..


2. The bear was sick. Sick animals will do all kinds of things that are not normally of their nature.

There is a chance the bear just got hunger, or the kids were screwing with it...but more often than not a bear attack is a result of one of the option noted above.

oh..and a bottle of bear spray does very little when a ton of teeth and claws is charging at you.

[flairball]

There were some problems on Vancouver Island a few years ago. Seems some of the black bears started to figure out that the large number of tourists visiting the island could indeed be considered a food source. It is rare, but it does happen in some cases where the bears are exposed to people regularly. Of course exposure alone won't do it, there has to be other contributing factors.

The good news is that bear season is now open in several states, and provinces. I'll be bear hunting in September here in Mass. This year I suspect I'll be wearing a kilt while hunting.

I've never had to use bear spray, but I've seen it used, and know people who have. It's effective. The problem is, the close range of the spray pretty much ensures that, should you have to use it, you'll be changing your undies afterwards, should you have not gone regimental that day.

[ozmeath]

I'm glad our bears are cute, dopey and a an eighth of the size here in Oz. I wonder if I can buy shark repellant though...that'd be handy.And If I lived much further north I'd want some anti-crocodile spray too, but they usually just call them shotguns.
You guys on the American continent are definately not on the end of the food chain.You be careful SB.

[GlassMan]

I saw an update about this on the news. It stated that a bear had been trapped in the area and immediately euthanized. Now they are scouring the area to make sure that they killed the right one.

I'm sorry, but isn't that rather like "shoot first, ask questions later?" What if that wasn't the right bear?

I really wish they'd given more information to explain why the animal was killed if they weren't certain. Was it acting vicious as well?

I sincerely hope that they are not just trapping any and all bears in the area and killing them until they feel certain that they've eliminated the threat.

[KiltedKnight]

This is one black bear that won't cause anyone any more trouble since it's one of my sporrans now, also the claw at the bottom was once part of a giant Kodiak. This is my second attempt at posting picks so bear with me....no pun intended...

http://files.tagworld.com/08c17d599e...4e76a9aa9.jpeg

Chris.

[Southern Breeze]

I saw an update about this on the news. It stated that a bear had been trapped in the area and immediately euthanized. Now they are scouring the area to make sure that they killed the right one.

I'm sorry, but isn't that rather like "shoot first, ask questions later?" What if that wasn't the right bear?

I really wish they'd given more information to explain why the animal was killed if they weren't certain. Was it acting vicious as well?

I sincerely hope that they are not just trapping any and all bears in the area and killing them until they feel certain that they've eliminated the threat.

Here's what I've been told about killing the bears: They do this to preserve any forensic evidence. There also tends to be only a few bears in any one area.
This was not however bear normal behavior.