Beware Of Bears!

[Devilwin]

Black bears do actually attack more often than the brown bear (grizzlies are a race of brown bear), but mainly because of their numbers. Grizzly mothers are much more likely to attack you if you bother their cubs than black bear moms do. But blacks and grizzlies both normally retreat from humans. It's like people. Some have good dispositions, some are just born nasty. A black bear killed seven campers over a two year period on an Alaskan island back in the 80's before it was shot.

Grizzlies will sometimes turn man eater, craving human flesh and going to great lengths to procure it.. Black bears continue to take whatever is around.
While it is true the average black bear is a mild mannered creature, we must remember as our bear population here increases, conflicts will become more likely.
And more likel than not, it is our fault, like the two people in the last couple of years killed and partially consumed by black bears they feeding near their homes in eastern NC.

[Devilwin]

I found the New Bern giant bear from my nephew's game cam.new bern bear.jpg

[jimsumner]

I loved this joke until I lived it.

I was riding my road bike just outside of Burnsville, NC, with my son and son-in-law. It was a beautiful day, riding along a fairly flat road along a lazy little creek. We were enjoying a nice ride, though I was challenged to keep up with the youth. While we were out mostly for a fun ride (as opposed to a hammer-fest, hardcore workout), we found the Strava segments* to try for a KOM, where one of them was victorious leaving the other to take third, I think. I didn't register in the top anything. Not even close.

As we were headed home, we saw a couple of cars stopped in the distance. They moved along well before we got there. As we came upon the same spot, we noticed wet bear tracks across the road. Shortly thereafter, we saw Mama bear and her two cubs across the river bank.

I was demonstrably the slowest in the group -- and thinking about that joke.

We chose to quietly break into a sprint (one of my fastest, ever!) and my son and son-in-law stayed right on my shoulder, three abreast, so we looked much wider and larger as a group. Fortunately, bikes don't make a lot of noise, and all we did was increase our speed. We rounded a bend and were out of eyesight, but kept going until we rounded another couple of bends, to put enough distance between us. Thankfully, Mama chose to ignore us.

With a top speed of about 25 mph (the average speed of the Tour de France peloton), it's difficult for the average cyclist to outrun a bear, especially in a sustained chase. So the slowest cyclist is the target. That target was me! That joke loses it's humor and becomes a mantra to hold a high cadences turning over those pedals.

Mama bear graciously allowed us to move through her home without threatening us. Such magnificent creatures. I wish it were safe to sit there and observe her and the cubs. Best to just let them be.

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*Strava is an app for athletes to track workouts, usually with fitness watches that track GPS, heart rate, cadence, and other statistics and gives you tools to track your progress. It also has a "segments" feature, which are short sections of roads or trails that are usually particularly hard hills or long, fast sprints. Strava tracks your pace over the segment and lets you compare your speed to everyone else's. The fastest time is called the KOM, or King of the Mountain (QOM, or Queen of the Mountain for women). Strava segments are a thing with athletes, especially when you're good enough to collect KOMs/QOMs. My son has a number of them. I'm in no danger of collecting any! Strava gives me tons of data that quantitatively proves I am the slowest in the family.

Yikes!!

A few years ago my son and a friend were hiking through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in NC when they came across some bear cubs.

But no Mama Bear. What happens when the Mama Bear shows up and finds out these two humans are between her and her cubs?

Fortunately, they never had to find out. They got on down the trail ASAP and never did see Mama.

As an aside, I'm waiting for Devilwin to start a thread on alligators in North Carolina. We could have some stories, I suspect.

[bundabergdevil]

Five or six years ago I was staying in Curry Village (now Half Dome Village) in Yosemite. For those that aren't familiar, it's a canvas tent village and for a small premium versus bringing your own tent, you can rent them for the night and sleep on a cot on a raised platform. It's a pretty fun scene and a good staging ground for a Half Dome ascent, which is why I was there. It's also a hub of bear activity. It's so bad, in fact, that they've strung wires around the village that release pepper spray whenever a bear is spotted in camp. Gets rid of the bears but the people in the area also walk around sneezing like idiots for the next 10-15 minutes until the air clears.

The Village is organized in rows (like so). It ends up creating something of a tunnel effect. The morning of my ascent I rose at 4am and promptly stepped out onto the step just outside my tent. I was carrying my toiletries to do my morning business before the hike. As soon as I exited, I heard pots clanging and yelling coming from down the row. When I looked up, a BIG black bear was running full tilt right at me funneled through the tents. There's really not a whole lot of room and I didn't have much time. You never know what your reaction will be in moments where you don't really have time to consider your reaction --- I chose to raise my arms and yell, "Whoa Bear! Get out of here! Whoa!" Probably the best thing I could have done, s/he was clearly looking to get out of dodge but I was worried it would feel penned in. Fortunately, it took a hard left at my tent and got out of there.

If you look at the pictures in the link, I was on the little steps and the bear took a hard turn between my tent and the one next to it --- so, 2 feet? It was close and until it turned, I wasn't certain it wasn't coming right at me. Suffice to say, about half my morning business took care of itself right there on the steps...made it to the top of Half Dome though.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Five or six years ago I was staying in Curry Village (now Half Dome Village) in Yosemite. For those that aren't familiar, it's a canvas tent village and for a small premium versus bringing your own tent, you can rent them for the night and sleep on a cot on a raised platform. It's a pretty fun scene and a good staging ground for a Half Dome ascent, which is why I was there. It's also a hub of bear activity. It's so bad, in fact, that they've strung wires around the village that release pepper spray whenever a bear is spotted in camp. Gets rid of the bears but the people in the area also walk around sneezing like idiots for the next 10-15 minutes until the air clears.

The Village is organized in rows (like so). It ends up creating something of a tunnel effect. The morning of my ascent I rose at 4am and promptly stepped out onto the step just outside my tent. I was carrying my toiletries to do my morning business before the hike. As soon as I exited, I heard pots clanging and yelling coming from down the row. When I looked up, a BIG black bear was running full tilt right at me funneled through the tents. There's really not a whole lot of room and I didn't have much time. You never know what your reaction will be in moments where you don't really have time to consider your reaction --- I chose to raise my arms and yell, "Whoa Bear! Get out of here! Whoa!" Probably the best thing I could have done, s/he was clearly looking to get out of dodge but I was worried it would feel penned in. Fortunately, it took a hard left at my tent and got out of there.

If you look at the pictures in the link, I was on the little steps and the bear took a hard turn between my tent and the one next to it --- so, 2 feet? It was close and until it turned, I wasn't certain it wasn't coming right at me. Suffice to say, about half my morning business took care of itself right there on the steps...made it to the top of Half Dome though.

When I went about 10 years ago, we stayed in the Housekeeping camp, which is pretty much the same premise for a night's stay. As they give you your linens for your stay, they show you a video stressing the importance of keeping all your food tightly packed away, including from out of your car. The video has a bear destroying a vehicle. I'm watching this and thinking "I don't think my rental has bear insurance".

[bundabergdevil]

When I went about 10 years ago, we stayed in the Housekeeping camp, which is pretty much the same premise for a night's stay. As they give you your linens for your stay, they show you a video stressing the importance of keeping all your food tightly packed away, including from out of your car. The video has a bear destroying a vehicle. I'm watching this and thinking "I don't think my rental has bear insurance".

Oh, cool. I've never stayed at the Housekeeping Camp but it always looked like a nice, community spot their on the banks of the Merced. The car thing is real. The first time my father took me to Yosemite in the late 80s or early 90s, we were walking through the parking lot early one morning and he pointed out half a dozen or so cars with shattered windows. He said, "bears did that." I didn't believe him at first because, well, dad sold me a lot of lies to get my imagination going. But it was true. People that had left their coolers uncovered were usually the victims. The bears recognized them and were able to stick their claws under the windows and pull them out. The cars had been ransacked.

It still amazes me we used to actively promote people feeding bears at the parks. Had been garbage dumps illuminated by floodlights and with stadium style seating. People were encouraged to feed them out of their cars and such. Pretty crazy. Hopefully that opinion isn't public policy territory and there isn't a strong "let the people feed the bears" faction on DBR.