you know ... based on this thread I went back and took a look at the news. You guys are right - there have been a LOT of bear attacks in 2013. Wonder what is going on???

Generally I dismiss the whole "bear attack" thing because I'm lucky and the only bears that live in my area are black bears. They are usually on the timid side. But when I checked the news stories I was amazed to discover that several of the incidents have been caused by regular black bears. And furthermore, it doesn't look as though some of the victims did anything particularly wrong. The bears just attacked - that's it.

Not sure what's going on here. Normally I might say that the "problem" is due to more people venturing in the wilderness. But in my neck of the woods ... it's the total opposite. I was up in the High Sierras last week myself - and I have never seen as few people in the campgrounds as I saw last week. I pretty much had the whole place to myself, and in some areas the local "economy" is actually shutting down due to no customers to buy things. The modern generation is just not going out there.

so I wonder what's going on??

Pete2