Probably one thing that's "up" is that there are more bears due to conservation efforts and simultaneously more humans invading are their territory. Anecdotally I'm told that bears are having more contact nowadays with 1) campers and 2) researchers. The theory is that they're losing their fear of humans through repeated contacts and the fact that they're associating humans with food. Climate change may also be disrupting either their food supply or their general cycles of behavior. Spring is coming earlier and winter is coming later; that's bound to affect their feeding, mating, etc.

Knowledge is important but knowledgeable folks are also getting attacked. Some hardware is very helpful since bears can be unpredictable and they don't necessarily obey the dictates of experts.