Beware of the bears!

[bb07]

Some recent tragic encounters between bears and humans:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/07/04/bc-bear-attack-oweekeno.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/07/04/bc-bear-death-lillooet.html

 

[Shewie]

Very sad news, for both the families of the people and for the bears.

What's your view on the way the suspect bears are hunted afterwards bb? As an outsider it's strikes me as completely unnecessary and cruel, obviously I don't live with these creatures day in day out though.

It's like folk saying if you don't want to get eaten by a shark then don't go in the sea, people living in bear country must have the same thoughts ?

 

[mrcharly]

I can't see any relevance to sharks, mate.

If a bear is foraging in and around human dwellings, things are going to go badly for people (and the bear).

I'm not sure there is any way of dealing with this other than shooting bears in the vicinity. Well, apart from people moving away.

 

[Shewie]

I can't see any relevance to sharks, mate.

Lol, I didn't exactly mean sharks mooching about the woods in BC but rather the theory. In a nutshell, bears eat meat, humans are meat, if humans go where bears live then they should expect to have encounters, sometimes those will mean the inevitable. Like I said the last thing I meant is to be disrespectful to those who've lost loved ones and I'm not trying to be a numpty by simplifying things, I just feel if people are in areas where bears live then why should the bears be made to suffer if they attack.

Maybe there's just too many of us on this big lump of rock, even in Canada we're stepping on the toes of big hairy bitey creatures.

 

[bb07]

Very sad news, for both the families of the people and for the bears.

What's your view on the way the suspect bears are hunted afterwards bb? As an outsider it's strikes me as completely unnecessary and cruel, obviously I don't live with these creatures day in day out though.

It's like folk saying if you don't want to get eaten by a shark then don't go in the sea, people living in bear country must have the same thoughts ?

It's a sad fact that encounters between bears and humans that result in an attack or fatality will end badly for the bears, every time.
Any bear that attacks a human will always be destroyed, in every case, every time, as such a bear is considered to be extremely dangerous and likely to attack again. I think that in such cases it is necessary to put down that particular bear.
The unfortunate part is that in this attack, four bears were shot in an attempt to identify the individual bear responsible. It seems to have been the only option, other than just doing nothing.
If a person died out in the bush because of illness/accident or whatever, and then was eaten by bears(or any other animal for that matter), then nothing would be done to any animal as it would be a natural occurrence.

The majority of people here would be in favour of disposing of a rogue bear, rather than just letting it be, especially in populated areas, but in remote areas I think the opposite would be true.
I think that anyone that ventures out into remote areas in bear country, myself included, accept the risks. I also believe that the majority of people, again myself included, would not blame a bear for seeing us as a potential meal. After all, at certain times of the year the bears are practically starving and such rare instances of attacks show remarkable restraint on behalf of the bears.
I don't think humans would have the same consideration if the situation were reversed and we were the hungry ones.

Still, condolences to the family of the woman killed.

 

[Shewie]

Thanks for that bb, good to hear your views on it.

I've wondered the bush a couple of times over there and will be doing again in three weeks time

 

[FerlasDave]

Bear meat is delecious though...

 

[bb07]

Have fun, stay safe and have a great time. I wander around the bush a lot myself and while I'm always aware of my surroundings, never have I been afraid of bears while being out unarmed. I think that the chances of getting attacked are far less than the likelihood of being struck by lightning.
If in grizzly country then maybe I'd think differently.

 

[santaman2000]

Please let this be a warning (for the bears' sakes as much as for the sake of humans) Do NOT feed bears! I know this applies mainly to Black Bears but the result is the same; feeding bears (or any wildlife) takes away it's fear of man and will ultimately lead to an unpleasant (or fatal) encounter. Eventually it's just bad news for the bear.

 

[Shewie]

Have fun, stay safe and have a great time. I wander around the bush a lot myself and while I'm always aware of my surroundings, never have I been afraid of bears while being out unarmed. I think that the chances of getting attacked are far less than the likelihood of being struck by lightning.
If in grizzly country then maybe I'd think differently.

I once heard that more folk die in the UK by being trampled to death by cows than deaths from bear attacks. I've always been a bit cautious crossing fields ever since I heard that little nugget.

 

[bearbait]

If a bear is foraging in and around human dwellings, things are going to go badly for people (and the bear).

I'm not sure there is any way of dealing with this other than shooting bears in the vicinity. Well, apart from people moving away.

There is at least one organisation I'm aware of that use Karelian Bear Dogs as "aversion therapy" for bears, with some success. See http://www.beardogs.org/kbds/.

 

[horsevad]

Very sad news, for both the families of the people and for the bears.

What's your view on the way the suspect bears are hunted afterwards bb? As an outsider it's strikes me as completely unnecessary and cruel, obviously I don't live with these creatures day in day out though.

It's like folk saying if you don't want to get eaten by a shark then don't go in the sea, people living in bear country must have the same thoughts ?

From a purely biological standpoint the idea of neutralising these bears is sound.

By denying the attacking bears of their possibility of breeding the genes which possess the code for such behaviour will be negatively impacted in the overall evolution of the bear as a species. Given that the removal of these bears is done with sufficient thoroughness over long time enough the principle is quite efficient.

Evolutionary it can be viewed as humans introducing a artificial selection in the bear species natural progression.

It has been done with great success in Sweden through many generations. The remaining bears are VERY "shy" and really efficient at avoiding human contact.


//Kim Horsevad

 

[Ex Member - Sidney Bounty]

its like the urban deer population they know its safe so hang out and have some good garden eats and no predators they need to find a way for bear/deer/coyote to be hunted or trapped to keep populations down but until the tree huggers come round to reality and grow up we will have bears that kill people deer that maim and kill and coyotes after kids...

 

[Shewie]

Fascinating stuff Kim, so by eliminating the curious ones who run into humans they slowly remove that curiosity from that strain so to speak?

What of the bears that accidentally stumble across a human or vice versa, sometimes that can go bad but the bear wasn't necessarily out looking for trouble.

 

[horsevad]

Fascinating stuff Kim, so by eliminating the curious ones who run into humans they slowly remove that curiosity from that strain so to speak?

Essentially, yes.

What of the bears that accidentally stumble across a human or vice versa, sometimes that can go bad but the bear wasn't necessarily out looking for trouble.

It is terribly rare that such encounters actually ends with violent confrontation. Normally the bear gets scared and run of.

The only exception is hunting with dog, where the dogs accidentially encounters a bear. The bear charges, and the dogs seeks protection by running back to their owner, which not allways manages to kill the bear in its attack run - even though the are armed hunters. The bears brain is averaging the size of a normal table tennis ball, and the bear can (in short distances - attack runs) attain speeds of 40 km/h, so making a attack-stopping CNS shot is quite difficult!

BTW - even when such a hunter is confronted with an angry bear, the bear actually still enjoys legal protection. Only if the hunters life is at stake, he may kill the bear - not if it only attacks his dog(s)!

//Kim Horsevad

 

[Shewie]

its like the urban deer population they know its safe so hang out and have some good garden eats and no predators they need to find a way for bear/deer/coyote to be hunted or trapped to keep populations down but until the tree huggers come round to reality and grow up we will have bears that kill people deer that maim and kill and coyotes after kids...

Isn't that just bears evolving to their new environment? If they know there's an easy meal to be had then they're going to take it, easy as in trash/food scraps etc I don't mean people. Does clear-cutting have anything to do with it, are they getting squeezed into areas where contact is increased ?

Looking at it from a bigger perspective, why shouldn't it be us who has our population controlled rather than another species? I idealistic clap trap I know but one to think about.

Are bear numbers steady right now or are they decreasing, genuine question as I don't have a clue.

I'm starting to sound like one of those tree huggers Bill but honestly I'm not, this subject does fascinate me though so I have a lot of questions

 

[Shewie]

BTW - even when such a hunter is confronted with an angry bear, the bear actually still enjoys legal protection. Only if the hunters life is at stake, he may kill the bear - not if it only attacks his dog(s)!

//Kim Horsevad

These are the Swedish bears? They are still hunted in the US and Canada I believe ?

 

[horsevad]

These are the Swedish bears? They are still hunted in the US I believe ?

Yes, I was talking of the swedish bears. I have no knowledge of the US; but judging by conversations with US/Canadians I is possible to buy a "tag" to hunt bears in some areas.

(Which, as long as the amount of hunted bears is controlled in relation to the overall population and the amount of feeding possibilities in the area, only can be construed as a good thing - again from a purely biological standpoint. By harvesting the excess production the population size is kept to a optimum in relation to the area).

The amount of bears in the swedish nature is - in this respect - still wildly below such limits. The amount of wolves, however, has reach the limit for what is calculated as optimum population - and a few has been legally hunted.

//Kim Horsevad

 

[silentpaddler]

Here in Ontario they ended the spring bear hunt several years ago, the result being the damn things are thick on the ground. I've had many encounters, all ending up with me watching a bear running away into the bush, thankfully. I'm with bb on the grizzly thing...
we spend the whole summer camping in black bear country without losing any sleep at night. But if they were grizzlies I'd be shakin in me boots....I wouldn't
take the garbage out to the end of the lane without the rifle in one hand...

 

[bb07]

Here both spring and fall hunts are still allowed. The black bear population is considered as being healthy. I've never hunted them as I don't shoot what I don't eat, but have had fatal encounters in the past at the cabin. Property owners have the right to shoot a bear if it's causing problems. Sometimes it's the only way.