"Ron" wrote in message
...
Are you certain of that? I've read quite consistently that
the black bear is really very slow to attack a human, even
when it has cubs. Attacks are extremely rare.

We have black bears in southern New Hampshire. Perhaps one sighting a
year in this college town. To the best of my knowledge, no one has
ever been attacked by a bear in the past century.

Of course, if you go kidnapping bear cubs ...


Yes black bears are not aggressive animals, usually when there has been a
bear
attack, its been not because of a bear problem, but a problem with humans
leaving out food or being in close proximity to a bear and her cub.

Many times I have encountered black bears, and have chased them out of
campsites. Unless they have been habituated to the point where they
equate
humans and food nearby (not eating humans, but eating human food), they
will
typically run away when they encounter someone.

On that note, the only time I have been charged by a black bear, was when
I
encounted a black bear and her cub. The cub was curious and wanted to
check me
out, while the mom was not too big on that idea, and tried to chase me
away.

You folks need to update your bear knowledge. Yes, black bears have indeed
accounted for fatalities (read as multiple, not singular) here in the US,
and the last two I read about (one on CO, the other in NM) had *nothing* to
do with either camping or cubs, but instead were people attacked *inside
their homes* (a few hundred pounds of bear apparently not being strongly
challenged by either door or window). And from what I gather yes, the number
of black bear attacks is greater than the number of grizzly attacks; as I
said before, that is to be expected, given their much greater population and
dispersion, and their propensity to lose their natural fear of man when
exposed to folks like the average idiot who can't grasp the importance of
not feeding the critters in our parks, etc. Other commonly held bear beliefs
that are now being questioned are the utility of the "play dead" defense
against a grizzly attack and the usefulness of those idiotic "bear bells"
that some hikers wear. And yes, I too have encountered black bears, and have
yet to have a problem with any of them--but I sure as heck am not going to
underestimate their potential of being a hazard, either. Given that in BC,
which has both blacks and grizzlies, the black has accounted for both more
attacks and more fatalities, dismissing them as being an insignificant
threat would appear to be foolish.

Brooks


In order to add military aviation content, there was B-24 wreckage on a
nearby
mountain...


Ron
Tanker 65, C-54E (DC-4)
Silver City Tanker Base