Are bears losing fear of humans?
Bears
Are bears becoming less afraid of people? I know populations in some areas are rising, with more encounters, but lately I'm seeing more reports of bears attacking or just sidling right up to people on hiking trails etc.
Do we need to 'do our part' and kill more of them? Go back to hounding if that's been outlawed?
Didn't read the link. Every bear I've ever encountered in the woods has done the same thing. You could still hear em 2 hollows over still going and never looked back.
Yes and no here in Tennessee our population has basically exploded we have 11 different ones on camera on our place. I know they travel a lot but those numbers are crazy.TWRA has given us a decent bow season here on the plateau but baiting is not allowed.East of here dogs are legal .We have a tremendous mast crop this year so they don’t have to move much.One bear followed my wife out of the woods a few years ago.Good Luck Lewis
And then you get these idiots...
You beat me to it Dana! We have more and more nut jobs that think bears can be sweet and “cuddly” like dogs or cats..................and feed them and cause all sorts of problems. Our local game warden here in the Poconos had a saying.....................”There are no nuisance bears...................just nuisance people!” ;-)
Bears are like lions, wolves, humans etc. Only a certain % are bad (though that % seems higher with black bears compared to other mammals) As you increase the pure number of bears, that means the number of bad ones go up increasing chances for problems.
In several mountain towns in Colorado, the bears saunter around town without a care in the world. I've seen many bears in Winter Park like that. They mainly are dumpster divers that don't present much threat, if you leave them alone. My guess is the guy in the article provoked the bear in some way, or cornered him.
Matt
Here in MA the biologists have been radio-tracking bears for decades. In one western MA area they noticed that several collared bears were all converging on one spot. Turns out this lady had about 30 bird feeders in her yard. That city finally had to pass a 'no feeding the dam' bears' ordinance.
Mass has 6.8 million people living in 10,565 square miles. And over 4000 bears.
Re Dana's link about "idiots:" I'm from NJ originally and still "winter" there. I moved to AK 50 years ago.
My observation? Hunted bears are far more "polite" than unhunted bears.
However, this is not the bears' fault. It is the result of electing loopy liberal Democrats, like NJ Governor Murphy. When it comes to Covid policies, Murphy insists that he must "follow the science." But when it comes to bear policy, Murphy is only interested in politics. Science takes a back seat or is ignored. Murphy completely rejects wildlife science and the advice of his state biologists. He will not allow his DEP Commissioner to sign the Comprehensive Black Bear Management Plan. Thus a bear season cannot legally be set by the Fish and Game Council (regulatory board.)
So the damage and loss of life continue.... to appease antihunters and liberals. Which brings us back to Dana's term: idiots!
Pete
Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-bear hunting at all. And I think everyone should have a healthy respect for bears. I just think some people are irrationally fearful of them, like sharks. A quick search shows that you're are 30-50 times more likely to die from a dog attack than a bear attack in the US.
Matt
I moved to CT in February and we are riddled with them. They are everywhere, on ring cams, next door app, etc. All it is videos of bears and posts about missing small dogs and cats. There won't be a hunting season until some politician's kid gets mauled.
More humans living in bear habitat plus more bears equals more interactions.
Gosh darn they are so cute and cuddly until they aren’t.
I'd rather have bears for neighbors than people!
Just a few weeks ago I had to back away from a mature black bear in north-central TN. He wasn't aggressive, but we wasn't scared of me one bit. The few other bears I've seen in that area ran off fast and far.
Was out Sunday scouting and had one huffing at me and my daughter. We were cutting thru some thick mountain laurel and heard it…never saw it but gave it a holler and made some noise and off it went crashing thru the opposite side. Where my daughters 4 we backtracked our way out and went around the long way.
Boy mauled in Connecticut..............
10-year-old boy attacked by black bear at grandparent's Connecticut home Staff and wire reports A 10-year-old boy is recovering after a 250-pound black bear attacked him at his grandparent's home in Connecticut.
The boy was attacked around 11 a.m. Sunday in the town of Morris in the western part of the state, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) reported
James Butler, the boy's grandfather, told the Republican-American of Waterbury his grandson was playing near a trampoline when the bear emerged from thick woods behind the house.
“I heard him yell ‘bear’ and when I looked up, I saw his leg in the bear’s mouth and the bear trying to drag him across the lawn,” Butler said.
Butler, who uses a wheelchair, wheeled his chair toward the bear and threw a metal bar at its head, he told the newspaper.
The bear released the boy but then grabbed the child a second time and used its claws to try to roll the boy onto his back, the grandfather said.
A neighbor alerted by the boy's screams raced over and scared the bear off by brandishing a pipe
Once Butler and his grandson were safely inside the house, the bear returned, walking up a wheelchair ramp and peering at them through screen door, Butler said.
I hunted grizzlies in AK this year, and even as remote an area that we were in, I watched 3 bears haul @$$ when they smelled humans. One was ~5/8 mile down wind of a group of hunters and ran away like a scalded dog.
It isn't that bears are losing their fear per se, but that some bears are being raised in situations where they have never been taught to fear humans.
Yes around where I live, they have no fear. I live a couple of towns over from where that boy was attacked.
Friend in town took this photo pulling into his driveway this summer.
We have more bear than ever here in NJ, we are over run with them. Dogs getting attacked, homes getting broken into on almost a daily basis and yet our Gov Murphy refuses to allow the hunt. Its only a matter of time before someone gets really hurt here in NJ.
Yep NJ bear lovers are idiots!
Best one I ever read was reported by a Yellowstone ranger. Lady smeared honey on her toddler's face so she could get a picture of a bear licking it off.
Coyotes are getting fearless too.
"Throw toward not at them" there's some dumb liberal thinking lol
