AGGRESSIVE BEAR ENCOUNTER!

[Grizzly Adam]

grizz could this be the same bear that invaded that house a while back?

No, that bear was a young "teenage" bear. This was a mature boar.

I wouldn't have been as surprised had it been a young male ... but older means wiser, usually.

[Grizzly Adam]

They really need to open a bear season on the refuge, don't you agree Grizz?

I think the bear trouble to which you refer took place on the Pungo Unit of the refuge, Ray.

I believe it would be wise to open a limited, draw-based, assigned-section type bear hunt on the refuge. By no means should they just open up the entire refuge to bear hunters. The thought of all the yahoos that would flood the refuge is scarier than the reality of the bears!

[Farmer]

The aggressive boar would worry me as well . He would be the 1st one on the hit list come hunting season .

Doesn't anyone hunt bear in your area Griz ??

[Grizzly Adam]

The aggressive boar would worry me as well . He would be the 1st one on the hit list come hunting season .

Doesn't anyone hunt bear in your area Griz ??

Oh, yeah. I do myself. Lots of bear hunters, local and guest ... but when you're dealing with a population like ours, with sanctuary like ours, that doesn't affect them like it might in other areas.

[FullDRAW]

Grizz- up here in the Poconos of PA we have alot of bears living in close proximity to alot of people. Pike Co. is one of the fastest growing counties in PA but also has hundreds of thousands of acres of State Forest, State Game lands and National Recrreation Land.

That type behavior would probably not even get a nuisance call by the local WCO (game warden) up here. They will not trap and transfer, much less destroy a bear unless it has destroyed property or broken into a house(or is found hibernating under a deck or crawl space).

We have alot of bear/human interaction in our area. The advice is to keep a safe distance and let the bear go about it's business.

I would bet that if you had not stopped, yelled and honked the horn at it, it would not have reacted in such an agressive(DEFENSIVE?) manner!

[Grizzly Adam]

I would bet that if you had not stopped, yelled and honked the horn at it, it would not have reacted in such an agressive(DEFENSIVE?) manner!

Well, that's kinda obvious, isn't it?

How could he have done all he did if I had sped on by?

We have alot of bear/human interaction in our area. The advice is to keep a safe distance and let the bear go about it's business.

I knew someone would say what you've said! So:

I am well aware that I provoked his reaction by stopping. That provocation was intentional. Since I was protected in the truck, I stopped to prove what I suspected just from watching him cross the road: that he was a surly old male who's lost his fear of people.

The very reason I stopped was because he didn't run when I came around the corner ... and that's reason enough. Around here, a mature boar that doesn't hit the woods quick when a human comes around is a bear that is exhibiting abnormal behavior.

Think what you might about human/bear interactions, I know this from living among them all these years: the only good reaction to observe in a bear that encounters you up close (in a vehicle or on foot) is immediate flight ... in the opposite direction.

I've learned from hard and expensive experience that the "live and let live" philosophy sounds much better than it works in dealing with black bears. It is my experienced opinion, no matter what the "advice" says, that bears that obviously aren't afraid of close contact with you need to be made afraid, or they'll be trouble.

When I see a bear on the road that looks like it has an bad attitude toward humans, I'll do what I can to correct it's misconceptions about people. They're very much like dogs; if you let a bear have it's way, or boss you around, it will not forget ... and it will take advantage of it. If you let them "go about their business" in areas where you do yours, you are asking for trouble. If they think you're no threat, they're a threat to you.

When you live in a place like we do, you cannot afford to tolerate bears that do not get gone when they see you.

Believe me ... it's not that I lack respect for the bears. They have every right to be here. Because they do, there are many areas on our farm in which I will not oppose a bear that doesn't flee ... but those areas do not include my yard, our lane, our paths, or the road we drive on daily.

In areas with high human use, someone has to be the boss ... and if you let a bear get bossy, you'll regret it.

That's the way I see it.

Y'all folks in the Poconos can just buddy up with the bears all you want!

[FullDRAW]

I would bet that if you had not stopped, yelled and honked the horn at it, it would not have reacted in such an agressive(DEFENSIVE?) manner!

Well, that's kinda obvious, isn't it?

How could he have done all he did if I had sped on by?

What if you had just stopped and not honked and yelled? I bet that bear would not have acted defensive!

Believe me ... it's not that I lack respect for the bears. They have every right to be here. Because they do, there are many areas on our farm in which I will not oppose a bear that doesn't flee ... but those areas do not include my yard, our lane, our paths, or the road we drive on daily.

I have had bears in my yard many many times. And several times the bear just stood there looking at me. Most times they have been bigger older bears(that just stood their ground). I went back to my business and so did they.

I'm just saying don't assume because it doesn't immediately flee, that it is an aggressive bear.

BTW- I don;t think they like the Mckenzie bear I have in the yard though- it's been swatted several times(it has the claw marks to prove it)!

[
Y'all folks in the Poconos can just buddy up with the bears all you want!

No thanks, I'm no GRIZZLY ADAMS!

[DaGriz]

Grizzly

We have the same problems here where I live. People DO NOT know hopw to avoid the bear encounters They think it's "cute" to feed them in thier yards The scream help when the bears clean out thier bird feeders, garabge cans, strip thier friuit tress . The bears have the same learned behavoir here. No Fear of Humans. The DNR is run ragged with the nuisance bear calls. It is always the bear that loses here. This time of the year there is little natural food for them so they find easy picken' from the pilgrims who feed them, bird feeders, dog food left outside and garbage I can tell many stories about situations these pilgrims have gotten into from pure studitity.

I am fortunate in that the local Conservation Officer has provided me with some "bear deterent" 12ga shells. They are very load and shoot a soft rubber bullet. I work sometimes as a "Special" for the DNR so I get calls from local SD and PD to chase problem bears from the neighbor hood. I've had some very uneasy moments doing this. I have tremendous respect for black bears and very little respect for the pilgtims who feed them and encourage the development of "No Fear" for humans.

You're doing the correct things by "teaching a bear" to have a strong fear of humans!

[Grizzly Adam]

You're doing the correct things by "teaching a bear" to have a strong fear of humans!

Thanks, DaGriz, for the affirmation. Sounds like you've got some bear experience behind you too.

I've learned by real-life interaction and experience the value of "aversive conditioning" for bears. For the most part, they're very teachable ... that good memory serves them well.

Many people don't understand that harassing bears that "transgress" is best for both you and the bears. Invariably, bears that are tolerated when discovered pushing the envelope of behavior are bears that end up shot and wounded, or shot and killed.

Over the years, I've learned a lot about how to discourage them. Even though the scenario the other day wasn't ideal, I know that will work on that old boar's mind ... he'll be more likely to walk on than hold fast next time ... or at least that's what I'd expect. They are all individuals!

One of the worst things to happen in this area is that over the past several years some of the workers at the big farm down at the front of our dead-end road began feeding some of the young bears they found hanging around the dumpster and grain cleaners. Of course, those guys don't live out here. They live in communities, or in town.

They thought this was cute and cool ... they even had one trained so it would get up in the back of pickups to get a treat. I CAN'T OVEREMPHASIZE HOW MORONIC AND DANGEROUS THIS IS! Their boss finally forbade the practice, but some of those bears were forever habituated.

Wild animals that do not fear man are a danger to both men and themselves ... that's why I have my "zero-tolerance" policy here on the farm.

It works for us.

I hope to have another training session with that big sassy boar.

[DaGriz]

Unfortunately most of the interaction I get with the bears is after some greenhorn has been feeding them for a while and they are "conditioned" to have no fear of humans. Then the bear goes up on the deck, or through the screen door because it smells food in the house. Sometimes these bears can be re-conditioned and sometimes they have to be put down as they are too ingrained with NO FEAR, It irritates me because the bear is the loser through no real fault of it's own.

There is one area close by me that now has a problem with wolves. It started with bears. The idiots who own the properties are 95% from the big cities , no frigging wood sense at all. They started feeding the bears some years ago because they though it was "Fun" to watch them. As usual the bears lost all fear and became habituated and dependent on the food these pilgrim set out for them. It got to the point where the DNR had to live trap several dozen bears and re-locate them. Some came back; so they, along with a few others were put down. Once again the bear loses because of stupid humans.

Two years ago these same idiots discoverd that if they left certain foods outside they could possibly see some wolves. Guess what, they started setting out large amount of raw chickens, red meat, honey, etc. Of course the wolves showed up and the fools got to see them, take pictures etc. It wasn't long when their little lap dogs would go missing when they let them out. ANother uproar and the state DNR trapper has had to trap and relocate all of the wolves. Of course some aren't staying relocated so they will be put down

This spring has been a dandy for bear encounters of a close kind. The wild berries are late, not much of a fawn crop so the bears are coming into town. In the past two weeks there has been at least two bear issues everyday. So far no bear has had to be killed. But I would almost bet it's coming.
I've had five or six bears pass through my place looking for food. Luckily I have the neighbors trained to not put out any bird feeders etc until the bears have lots of natural food So far is has worked close by me.

Grizzly, give those bears a good education Most are, as you say, easy to train You just to watch out for that one cantankerous old summa britch!


Here's another little tidbit I'd like to share with you. Last fall there was a bear problem and many incidents. One in particular remains fresh in my mind. Two young city policemen responed to a call that there was a "cub" in a tree at the library. They called me asking what to do and I told them to leave it be as it would come down by itself and leave, Of course they decided they knew better. The shook the "cub" out of the tree and threw a blanket over it. As they commenced to try to gather the cub up to put in their squad it became a bit cranky. I got there shortly after the meley and had to tranquilize the cub. It had put a serious smack down on both officers Cuts and sctatches, bites, one dislocated shoulder, many puntcher wounds etc. The cub weighed 56lbs, the officers were at least 5"11" and weighed over 175lbs. I thought that was one of the funniest things I'd seen in years Sure wish I could have watched those two wrestling with than bear,

Bottom line is stay away from bears, don't befreind them with food as you are doing them no good. Teaching them to fear humans os the right thing to do. ANd don't try to wrestle with one, no matter what size it is.

[FullDRAW]

DaGriz- we have the same problems here. People move in from NY or NJ and think it's fun to feed the bears!

There was a guy a few years back that was trying to lure one into his VW Bug to get a picture. Another that would feed one a peanut butter sandwich out of his mouth(he would hold it with his teeth and the bear would come up and take it from him)! One guy would put a tarp down in his living room and throw down day old donuts and get pictures of the bear eating in his living room. Until he got back from vacation and found his picture window busted IN and the living room trashed!
A lady and her young kids were spotted throwing rocks at a bear by one of your WCO's. When he intervened and told them of the danger, the mother said if it came close they would just run away!

Our Local WCO jokes that he doesn;t have nuisance BEAR complaints.................most times they are nuisance PEOPLE complaints!

But, he advises everyone to just keep your distance and let the professionals deal with the problem bears.

[FullDRAW]

Here is a very interesting article I found:

Survey: Number of bears on rise

Herald staff and wire report

Bobby Koger was deer hunting on a Kentucky hillside when a black bear gave him the fright of his life.

A 300-pound animal, apparently unhappy that an intruder was on his turf, came charging and didn't stop until Koger raised his .50 caliber muzzleloading rifle and fired from point-blank range. A hunting companion who witnessed the attack from a distance also shot the bruin, which wheeled, ran a short distance and collapsed.

Conservation officers concluded they fired in self-defense at a bear that had lost its natural fear of humans.

With black bear populations rising, run-ins have become almost commonplace -- more than 15,000 in the past year in states east of the Mississippi River, according to a survey of state wildlife agencies.

Canadian bear researcher Hank Hristienko, who conducted the survey in January, found that 18 Eastern states were seeing more encounters with bears.

In Sussex County, bear sightings and incidents have become more and more frequent throughout the majority of the county. That's in part because Gov. Jon Corzine's administration has refused to approve a bear hunt, which advocates said would control the number of bears.

The state Department of Environmental Protection has declined to release its estimate on the number of bears in New Jersey, but in 2008, the state's Division of Fish and Wildlife logged twice as many bear calls as it did for 2007.

In a recent poll of Sussex County residents, 81 percent of respondents said they had seen a bear in the county within the past year and 97 percent reported seeing a bear in the county at some time. In a 2004 poll, 68 percent reported seeing a bear in the previous year, about the same level as in 1999.

On the oft-debated question of should there be a bear hunt in Sussex County, nearly 56 percent of the respondents said yes, up dramatically from the 1999 survey, when just 34 percent answered yes and 58 percent were opposed.

In 2004, the two sides were almost evenly split, with 45.3 percent in favor of and 40.5 percent opposed to a hunt.

Most encounters involve hungry bears raiding backyard bird feeders or toppling garbage bins, but sometimes they're harrowing. In a 2006 attack, a 210-pound male bear killed a 6-year-old girl and mauled her 2-year-old brother as well as her mother who tried to fend off the animal. The attack occurred during a family outing in Tennessee's Cherokee National Forest.

Some bears have become brazen, dining beneath backyard fruit trees, raiding pet food bowls, even chasing campers. At a park near Prestonsburg, Ky., last year, a bear held tourists at bay inside a cabin until rangers arrived to chase it away.

They have also become road hazards. Wildlife agencies reported more than 1,300 struck by automobiles in 2008.

The U.S. bear population more than doubled between 1989 and 2006, rising from 165,000 to over 350,000, according to The International Association of Bear Research and Management, a bear conservation nonprofit that takes a periodic census of the animals.

Biologists with the same group found nearly 20,000 reported conflicts between bears and humans in 37 states in a 2006 survey of state wildlife agencies.

More recently, in the Eastern region alone, 18 states reported an increase in bear-human conflicts over the past year, Hristienko found in his survey of wildlife agencies.

Tennessee reported the largest increase, up from 300 to 1,000 over the past 10 years. That was followed by New York, which went from 587 to 1,127, and New Jersey, which jumped from 691 encounters to 1,117.

Frank van Manen, a U.S. Geological Survey research ecologist and president of the International Association for Bear Research and Management, said it's not that the bears are becoming more aggressive. Instead, he said, bear populations are skyrocketing under state bans or limits on bear hunting.

"What we have seen throughout the eastern United States is quite a phenomenal range expansion of the black bear," van Manen said. "With the range expansion, the likelihood of the encounters is increasing."

Black bears are the most common bear species in the U.S. with measurable populations in most states. Their larger cousin, the grizzly, is limited to the northwestern states and Alaska. They eat just about anything, including meat, but tend to subsist mostly on insects, nuts, berries, acorns and other vegetation.

Stephanie Boyles, a wildlife scientist for the Humane Society of the United States, said 14 people have been killed in attacks by black bears in North America since 2000, including two in Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Cherokee National Forest. Boyles said another 10 people were killed by grizzlies during the period, mostly in Alaska and Canada.

Boyles said people can prevent unwanted bear encounters by doing simple things like putting bird feeders out of reach of the animals, putting trash out only on the day it is to be picked up, and keeping pet food indoors.

[Mike P]

The problem with the bear that Grizz encountered and did not run off was not due to a lack of fear associated with humans.

The bear was unable to determine that Grizz was a human.


After all, he has more body hair then the bear.

That particular bear was just pissed that another bear got his drivers license before he did.

[FullDRAW]

Now that's funny!

Good thing ya weren't ridin' your Schwinn, Grizz!

[mikej]

The problem with the bear that Grizz encountered and did not run off was not due to a lack of fear associated with humans.

The bear was unable to determine that Grizz was a human.


After all, he has more body hair then the bear.

That particular bear was just pissed that another bear got his drivers license before he did.