Black Bear???

[gonefishin]

jcoberley wrote:

<I would say their on the incress.>

A couple of years ago my Thunder Bay buddy wrote to me in early April decrying once again that the 'Greenies' in Toronto had caused an explosion in the Black bear population by lobbying for elimintion of the Spring bear season a couple of years earlier and warning that in a matter of a few weeks that the bears, just coming out of hibernation famished, would start eating people. Less than 2 weeks later he forwarded a newspaper article to me about a couple of unarmed hikers being attacked, killed and partially eaten.

If anyone recalls much the same thing happened in the Denver/Boulder area some years ago when the Greenies halted hunting Mt. Lion with dogs. So the lions started eating pets and hikers.

Sometimes justice is swift. CC

Sure is. There is a very simple and unbreakable rule in the animal world. You are either prey or you are not. Not to hard to figure things out from there.

[Terry Beeson]

Just punch the bear in the nose and say "GITTONOWTTAHYEER!!!" just like you do a hound that's under your feet...

[jdmidwest]

Terry, I think you are supposed to punch a shark in the nose, you shoot a bear!

How else can you make a rug?

[vanven]

Nothing really unexpected here after all black bears are large and potentially dangerous predators. Encounters with people are bound to happen.

There is a pattern tho, as the black bear populations expand so do the number of attacks. It also looks like black bears are starting to think of people more as prey. This is born out by the numbers of people stalked or attacked in tents at night. When a bear attacks people in tents at night the bear is on the hunt for prey. This is happening more frequently.

It could also be stated that the increase in the human population and the encroachment by weekend warriors into the woods could be just as much to blame. The average suburbanite may not give thought to animals they encounter in the woods, above hoping to see a squirrel or raccoon. I generally subscribe to the idea that it isnt a change in the animal, but a general dumbing down of the human population that is to blame.

I am really scared of bears. I have spent quite a few hiking trips in bear and mountain lion country. I always prepare for both. Bells, loud talking, avoiding dense underbrush, pepper spray, care in preparing food and cleaning dishes, and treeing food. The only bear experience I have ever had was from a family at the campsite next to us leaving their car full of goodies and an opportunistic bear helping himself. We heard the commotion and something BIG bumped our pop up camper hard enough to rock it. Mountian lions I dont worry about so much for 2 reasons. First of all I wont ever see them coming and it will be over before I can deal with it. They arent sloppy like a bear.

I have been absolutely terrorized by wildlife on camping trip before. Namely a well organized pack of ground squirrels that shredded a roll of toilet paper in my backpack and made off with all my trailmix. I have also woken up in the middle of the night to the hot breath of a coyote in my face while camping in Rocky Mountain National. We were also woken in the middle of hte night by something brushing up against the tent while camping in the Escalante area near Lake Powell. We found big cat/dog prints in the sand outside the tent.

I will admit that I dont give much thought to wild animals while I am in the southern Missouri and northern Arkansas woods. When we were planning a trip to a Arkansas state park for a long weekend of hiking and primitive camping we actually had a ranger tell us something along the lines of "I wouldnt enter that park without a firearm". He wasnt referring to black panthers, mountain lions, or bears but a booming population of wild boar.

Of course all of that is easy to say when I refuse to sleep in a tent without Mr HK under my pillow.

-Jerod

[jcoberley]

I didnt know firearm's were allowed in our parks. except for the hunting area's.

[vanven]

That's the joke behind it. They aren't.

-Jerod

[gonefishin]

I will admit that I dont give much thought to wild animals while I am in the southern Missouri and northern Arkansas woods. When we were planning a trip to a Arkansas state park for a long weekend of hiking and primitive camping we actually had a ranger tell us something along the lines of "I wouldnt enter that park without a firearm". He wasnt referring to black panthers, mountain lions, or bears but a booming population of wild boar.

Of course all of that is easy to say when I refuse to sleep in a tent without Mr HK under my pillow.

-Jerod

If our parks are going to have dangerous wildlife in them then the gun laws need to be changed so people can protect their selves.

I guess I am getting old. I keep forgetting why we need to re-introduce/introduce potentially dangerous wildlife such as bears, cougars, wolves and hogs?

[jdmidwest]

From the Anchorage Daily News...

Color coding for problem bears suffers fatal error

BRIGHT DYE: Tranquilizer dart misses rump, strikes female grizzly in the liver.

The Associated Press

(Published: June 21, 2007)

A grizzly bear tranquilized so it could be painted with pink dots has died.

Biologists said the tranquilizer dart hit the Kenai Peninsula bear in the liver.

The female yearling was darted June 13 as part of a program by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game plan to mark bears with dye if they had become habituated to humans.

Department officials hope that marking bears with bright colors will help identify them and head off problems between humans and bears looking for easy meals from backpacks or fish caught by anglers and kept along riverbanks.

Biologist Jeff Selinger, who heads up the program, said the bear death will not change the program focus. Anytime a bear is shot with a dart, there is a risk of death, he said. The bear's death was unfortunate, he said, but the program will move ahead.

Selinger and his team tranquilized the 2-year-old female last week after reports it was frequenting the Russian River area.

Five spots on the bear's hide were bleached and dyed in bright pink. The bear was tagged and fitted with a radio collar.

"The color codes will allow us to positively identify individual bears and to get reports from the public and other officials in the area of specific bear activity," Selinger said.

The bear was released, but when Selinger tracked it Monday with the radio collar, he found it had died. A necropsy indicated the tranquilizer dart hit the bear's liver.

"I was confident that I had the aim in the right spot on the rump, in the heavy meat section of the rump. The dart just traveled a little higher and got up behind the first rib," Selinger said.

Animal protection groups have said it's a bad idea to mark bears with bright colors. They said colored bears will socialize differently, a claim bear researchers said likely will not happen.

"Bears cannot see colors, or if they do it's just minor shades," Selinger said. "Most of what they see is in black and white, so color coding would not have an effect."

John Toppenberg of Alaska Wildlife Alliance said tourists visiting Alaska will be put off by the markings.

"Certainly, very few people would come up here to see bears colored like clowns," Toppenberg said.

Selinger said the bear coloring program was designed around four bears that frequented the Russian and Kenai River areas last year. If an opportunity comes up to mark them, Selinger said, his team is ready to do so.

There are no plans to mark a sow and two cubs spotted lately along the Russian River. The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge closed off wooded areas near the ferry Tuesday because of those bears and others.

Sounds like the plan works, we don't have to worry about that bear!

[Terry Beeson]

Hmmmm... must be that same program where they color those elephants with pink and purple polka dots... It's true... I saw one the other night after several rounds with Jose Cuervo!!!!

[gonefishin]

You got that right Terry. The people who came up with that idea have either been drinking or smoking some really good chit.

Either that or they are just plain old everyday stupid and as everyone knows 'you cant fix stupid'.