On Sep 18, 8:36 am, "Jeff Strickland" wrote:
"Ryan Robbins" wrote in message

news:XkGHi.2194$yO2.866@trndny01...







"Jeff Strickland" wrote in message
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AS IT TURNS OUT, black bears are attacking all sorts of people these
days.

Really? And I take it that you're basing this assumption on a couple of
news reports which, by definition, report things that are unusual. Attacks
by black bears are rare. Fatal attacks are even rarer still. Here in
Maine, we have the largest black bear population east of the Mississippi.
I don't recall ever hearing of even so much as an attack by a black bear
here. I have had four black bear encounters since June, one only 25 feet
from a mother bear and her cub. And every time the bear didn't make any
attempt to attack. On three occasions, the bears took off. On one
occasion, the bear just kept eating nuts, not minding the discharge of my
flash.

You and I are in complete agreement, the nature of black bears is that they
avoid human contact if they can.

My point is that in the west we have had years of drought and the food
supply is diminished, causing the bears to be more agressive than they would
otherwise be. Mike is suggesting that the cause of the agression is the
mountain bike, I am suggtesting that the bike rider simply ended up in the
wrong place at the wrong time, and found a hungry bear that was also
defending her cubs.

I think you're on the right track, but I am doubtful that the cubs
play into it (it isn't at all obvious that the attacking bear even had
cubs, despite the reported presence of a momma bear with cubs in the
area) - I think the dogs probably got the bear more riled up than
anything, and the biker wound up in the midst of it, an easy target
for the angry, panicky bruin.

Either way, I think it pays to exercise caution in bear country. This
guy had loose dogs and was zipping along on a bike where visibility
apparently was not excellent. It doesn't sound really smart, or
really careful, to me. His actions were at best a gamble, and on this
spin, he lost the bet.

Bruce Jensen