Short news article and accompanying video interview of a man who was attacked by a black bear a few days ago. The outcome could of been much worse had this been a bigger and stronger bear.

Tim Scott was attacked by a black bear while hiking with his family at Red River Gorge on Sunday.

He described in detail how he tried several times to get away from the bear before he was attacked by the 150 pound animal.

Wow, that's really unusual bear behavior. Interesting analogy - a bear criminal. I wonder if he had some food in his pocket or something? Where were his dogs in all this? The rest of his family? Be interesting to see if there are other stories in that area with a similar MO.




As an aside, the grammer police in me was really itching to yell at the writer...

From what I know (not an expert), a 150 lb. blackie is basically a yearling that got the boot from mom. That's a time where they are vulnerable to starvation, which would explain the clearly predatory behaviour. This behaviour is rare but not unknown. In this situation, with a blackie, you fight back with everything you've got.

It may not be fair to say so, but I get the impression that this fellow may have unwitting presented the body language of prey. (Armchair assessment, I know.)

BTW, fighting even a small black bear would be no joke. One of my Great Danes is 150 lbs.; a big marshmallow, but plenty intimidating; you have no idea how bloody strong those jaws are 'til you try to remove porcupine quills with pliers ...

Obviously we don't have all the facts but I thought it was interesting that there was no mention of doing anything to appear large and threatening when the bear was approaching. No yelling, arm waving, hitting, kicking, eye gouging, rock throwing, etc.

His behaviour (walking away, dropping items, turning his back on the bear) sounds like the behaviour of a prey animal.

Obviously he could have left facts out (or facts could have been edited out) of that very brief account.

Glad to hear that things turned out relatively well for him.

First word to remember with bears is 'unpredictable'. After that, you learn about them and they are as predictable as pie.

I am betting that guy did everything to make the hungry young bear think he was prey, and it makes me mad that there are humans out there who take walks in nature and then call an animal that is just being an animal a name like "bad". It is more like bad human. That guy must have been crazy to have acted like he did, backing up and turning his back. He probably could have scared the bear away if he presented himself as a viable danger to the bear, but it looks like he didn't even try. Now the bear is hunted down as "criminal" because of a human's ignorance. He could have in the least carried a pepperspray... or a spine!

My understanding of how to act near bears:

All Bears = scare it away or kill it before it gets to you.

Brown (Grizzly) Bears = if it is on you, play dead in fetal position, covering back neck with hands, face tucked in to chest; as it is trying to eliminate the competition and threat to its children, and when it believes it has done so it go away. Although in the rare event the Griz is starving, you may fight, but know that you will most likely lose.

Black Bears = if it is on you, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT! Even if it does have cubs, it is likely planning on eating the competition and threat.

I was approached by a young black bear as I was searching for my camera at the tailgate of my truck. It was about the same size bear (~200 pounds), and it approached to within about a couple of feet, obviously hungry, and I began stamping my feet and yelling and raising my arms. The bear hesitated, so I got more intense and it turned and climbed up the nearest tree like a cub would do. After about a minute it climbed back down and lay down at the base of the tree. I couldn't scare it away, so I got in my truck to drive away. Then the bear got up and approached my truck. It wasn't scared of the horn, so I drove away before it could start damaging my truck. It is sad, because this bear was conditioned by people throwing food to it at the side of the road. It probably had to be killed because of ass-ignorant people getting a thrill out of feeding wildlife.

That guy's incident reminds me of that jogger in Canada who got killed by Coyotes because she didn't understand predator-prey dynamics.

For all you who think that bear is "bad", understand this, there is no bad animal, only humans acting stupidly. Don't go into nature unless you are confident you know what you are doing and are prepared to deal with uncertainty.

Scott mentions he mainained eye contact with the bear. I thought that was one of the things you shouldn't do - don't look a bear in the eyes. Am I correct?

No, that's gorillas. You challenge their dominance within the group if you look them in the eyes.

"First word to remember with bears is 'unpredictable'. After that, you learn about them and they are as predictable as pie."

I don't think you've met many bears.

A hungry bear probably isn't going to act the same as a sated bear. A bear who's just been chased away from a dead deer by a bigger bear might be in a bad mood. A Mom bear probably isn't going to act the same as a female w/o cubs. A healthy bear probably isn't going to act the same as one who has an old injury from a hunter's bullet, with the bullet still in him. What happens if you're in between a female in season and the bear that has been following her? A bear who has had some warning that people are around probably isn't deliberately going to hang around if he has a way out in the other direction. Truly wild bears who haven't had any/much contact with humans will probably act differently than garbage can bears.


As to the guy in the article, I don't think he acted very smart. It was almost like he had never even entertained the idea of running into a bear, or considering what he might do if he did run across one.

When the bear first approached, he started taking photos. He didn't even have an idea in his head that he might be in danger.

Sue

Here are a number of references suggsting it's a good idea to avoid eyecontact with bear.

http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&a...wAAAKoEBU_QzOs8

You are right, Susan. I have not met all the bears. They are "predictable as pie" in that the basic premise is to increase the distance between yourself and them, because they can kill you, even though they are unpredictable enough not to. "My understanding of bears" is of course going to differ with others' depending on unpredictable circumstances, thus the unpredictability of bears.

So again, unpredictable and yet as predictable as pie.

Or maybe you like 'predictably unpredictable' better.