"Stephen Harding" wrote in message
...


snip


I think much of it has to do with the political thinking of
this area. Hunters are very bad (their trucks commonly have
sugar poured into gas tanks during deer season), as of course
guns (did you know a gun is "an instrument of violence"?).

Yeah, folks just don't seem to understand that predation is supposed to be a
natural process, and we have removed some of the predators from the chain;
unless hunters fill the void, you get population explosions in
not-so-comfortable places and attendant problems. ISTR Long Island, among
other northeastern communities, has been having a heck of a problem with
deer, but every time a regulated hunt or thinning program is proposed, the
PETA weenies come out of the woodwork. It would not be so bad if the
critters were *just* eating up folks ornamentals in their yards, but we are
experiencing fatalities; there have been at least two fatalities due to
hitting deer on the road in my local area over the past three or four years,
and about fifteen years ago I lost an uncle when an oncoming car hit a deer,
tossed it up into the air, and sent it through the windshield of the car he
was traveling in.


There is the promotion of the idea that animals are our friends
and only humans are the real aggressive creatures. I think the
"gentle Bambi" side of wildlife is emphasized at the expense of
reality.

Talk about Bambi...every year we have one or two accounts in the state of
*deer* attacking folks during the rutting season. Haven't heard of any
fatalities recently, but a couple of folks were pretty badly injured. Folks
always think "oh, how cute" and forget they are wild animals and can tear
you up pretty good.


Needless to say, I have not been too concerned encountering
bears in the woods, but am quite convinced there is going to
be "an incident" in town some day as someone runs into a bear
who has become habituated to humans.

Those are the ones to worry most about. I was always taught to stay away
from bears near any parks, and *all* sows and cubs. The first because of the
likelihood of them having lost their natural fear of us, the second because
they are extremely defensive of their young.


A couple years ago, I was visiting a friend at the edge of town
as a bear hit trash cans left out by an unthinking tenent. Myself,
with infuriated dog (on leash) and 6 other people stood and
watched this bear go through the trash cans not much more than
30 yards away. He totally ignored our presence, or the near
hysterical dog trying to commence a chase. *That* is potentially
a dangerous bear!

Guess it's time to walk a bit more softly (or perhaps more noisily)
over the trails now that I have some alternative info on the beast.

Interestingly, when looking for the bear attack statistics I ran across a
reference to those "bear bells" that some folks wear when hiking. Seems some
researchers tied some to a bush and jingled them as grizzlies strolled by,
and got absolutely *no* response from the bears, other than curiousity
(which is not the reaction I would want to engender in any grizzly I might
meet when fishing in Montana or Wyoming). The noise thing may be another
"doesn't really work, or works counter to the desired result" item, like
that "play dead when dealing with a grizzly" bit.

Brooks



SMH