Actually, this reminded me of some of Dr. Stephen Herrero's findings; that, while rare, fatal encounters with black bears appear to mainly be the result of predatory males.
The University of Calgary's
summary of his findings states:
In particular, the common belief that surprising a mother bear with cubs is the most dangerous kind of black bear encounter is inaccurate. Instead, lone male black bears hunting people as a potential source of food are a greater cause of deadly maulings and related predatory attempts.That article links to a YouTube video which features Dr. Herroro talking about his findings which is worth watching:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kjuMqCL6kk