Please don't take this personally, but this line of thinking is just plain stupid. There are crazy animals just like there are crazy people.

In the context of bears, looking at populations as a whole, bear encounters are rare. Most people have never seen one in the wild and never will. For those of us who get out and enjoy the fresh air, the chances go up. I've encountered several in the wild and never had a problem with them. But with 6 billion people on the planet, there are a fair number of folks missing some marbles. There are some animals out there, including bears, missing some marbles as well.

Some animals are more aggressive than others, even without the human factor. Granted, animals can be conditioned based on their environment. But that doesn't mean there aren't some bad apples out there that can't cause problems on their first human encounter. People do need a better understanding, but people also take the quickest answer and treate it like doctrine.

I've posted this before, but I still think it makes for an interesting read:

http://fwp.mt.gov/mtoutdoors/downloads/BearAttack.pdf
http://www.nps.gov/glac/parknews/news10-05.htm

Keep hiking...

Just insert "mostly" in the appropriate places and there's (mostly) no disagreement.

Having worked closely with all sorts of animals, I can tell you for a fact that a few are "on the prod" by nature. In a controlled environment, you can temper that. But in the wild, you react in the manner that 99% will respond to. For the other 1%, you invoke Plan Z, because they leave you no other option.

Mostly, that works.

Looking any bear in the eye works very well.....as long as the looking is done through the scope of a high powered rifle.


There was an erie video a few years ago about a blackie stalking a guy for miles. He filmed it all and it was a miracle it never attacked.

I have killed one black bear. Amazing animals and when skinning him, the claws and muscles were awe inspiring. Not something I would want to go up against with pepper, bells or a sharp stick!