On Tue, 18 Sep 2007 15:36:17 GMT, "Jeff Strickland"
wrote:


"Ryan Robbins" wrote in message
news:XkGHi.2194$yO2.866@trndny01...

"Jeff Strickland" wrote in message
news:4NBHi.2751$io2.196@trnddc06...
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,

Yes! The only right place for a mountain biker is on pavement.

and found a hungry bear that was also
defending her cubs.

The drought in the west is not an assumption, by the way.

--
I am working on creating wildlife habitat that is off-limits to
humans ("pure habitat"). Want to help? (I spent the previous 8
years fighting auto dependence and road construction.)

Please don't put a cell phone next to any part of your body that you are fond of!

http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande