At 11:20 AM 2/22/98 PST, Rob Conway wrote:
>On Fri, 20 Feb 1998, Don Baccus wrote:
>>> >> A friend who was a ranger in a National Park in California said
>that standard ranger protocol for getting Black Bears out of campgrounds
>was to kick the bear. I guess it's different if you get between a
>mother and her cubs, but in general, black bears are not a big threat.

Please be careful - Don Baccus didn't write this.

>=======================================
>Kicking bears in an NP campground? Either he was pulling your leg or
>was a victim of a mauling. After sows with cubs the most dangerous
>black bears around are bears that are used to being around people - the
>fear factor is gone and they view people as "automatic feeders". For
>many years my aunt and uncle lived in Yosemite Valley, next to a large
>abandoned apple orchard that still produced a lot
>of apples. Several times every year STUPID TOURISTS would get into
>trouble trying to feed the cute little bears. Not killed mind you, but
>charged or roughed up. Bears would also regularly break into houses and
>raid refrigerators or freezers.

Actually, Herrero's research makes it clear that such habituated bears
aren't particularly dangerous, indeed their tolerance is amazing. There
are exceptions, but mostly they just ignore people. They've apparently
learned they're going to get the food, anyway. Of the documented deaths
by black bears, predation attacks by non-habituated bears accounted for
virtually all of them. It is the tolerance of habituated black bears for
abuse by people that he, as a bear researcher, finds amazing.

He also makes it clear that black bear moms with cubs aren't particularly
dangerous. They bluff-charge until you crap your pants, but if you stand
your ground they'll back off. That's one reason why it's important to
learn to differentiate a black bear mom from a griz mom in country populated
by both species. Standing your ground is the smart thing to do with a black
bear mom with cubs. Standing your ground is likely to get you dead before you
can play dead with a griz mom.

Six black bears - two moms and their two cubs each - were killed in Yosemite
this year because they wouldn't respond to hazing, being pepper sprayed, etc
etc. Pepper spray would drive them off until the next night, nothing more.
They continued to rob cars - mom would rip a rear window out, and the cubs
would go inside and rip through the back seat into the trunk to get food
stashed there (so much for locked trunks). Mom, of course, being too big
to get through the window. Both moms had their cubs well trained.

The rangers tried all sorts of physical abuse to try and convince these
bears to leave cars alone, with no success. After some months of trying
abuse, they ended up destroying them.

Since anecdotal evidence has a following among some folks here, at least,
and since you've offered some as well, I'll dish up one of my favorites.

In Rustler Park, in Chiricahua NF in SE Az - a hot birding spot - I saw
an obviously old, arthritic, heavily-scarred male black bear. We walked
in parallel for about 1/2 mile, me on the trail, he respectfully about
100 ft to one side (the terrain's open forest so there was no particular
reason for him to prefer the trail).

I missed the fun that night, but other birder friends related it to me.
A family camped there was making dinner, and this ole' bear just walked
up and started eating food right out of pans as it was being cooked. The
whole family was around the picnic table at the time and he just calmly
walked up and helped himself. Dad picked up an iron skillet and repeatedly
beat the bear over the head with it, but the bear just ignored him, slurping
everything in site very, very quickly.

Then the bear just walked off, with dad yelling and screaming at it.

So, no, kicking, hitting, or beating black bears does NOT invariably lead
to a mauling. How many humans would put up with being beaten over the
head with an iron skillet without defending themselves?

The amazing thing is that such treatment doesn't result in thousands of
maulings a year, because I think there must be thousands of dumbshits in
bear country doing stuff like described in the above anecdote. I assume
it's because the bears just prefer to eat and run, rather than stand and
fight.

>Bears are also smart. My aunt was unloading groceries from her car
>(parked right next to the house) and in between trips she answered the
>phone. After a minute or two she heard a commotion outside. She went
>out to check to find that a black bear had climbed into her brand new
>Buick to get at the groceries....and a REALLY STUPID TOURIST , in a
>panic, had closed the car door on the bear!! The
>bear got out by ripping through the side panel of the door and literally
>tearing off the door.

Yosemite bears must be some of the smartest in the world. Years ago,
they learned to untie or chew through ropes used to hoist food the
old-fashioned way (up 25 feet, but with the rope tied to a tree).

So folks were told to counterweight instead, i.e. hang the food up high
but with two packs counterweighted. In the past few years, moms have
taught their cubs to climb out to the tree limb holding the food and
bounce up and down until the the counterweighted packs start moving,
either to the point where mom can grab one or to the point where they
drop to the ground. There are recorded cases of rangers observing even
more amazing behavior: cubs climbing up on the limb and jumping down on
one of the counterweighting packs! The added weight of the cub causes
them all to fall to the ground, where their ingenuity is rewarded with
good grits.

Also, the dumpsters in Yosemite have a more complex bear-proof locking
mechanism than has been standard in most NP/NF campgrounds - some Yosemite
bears finally figured out how to open these so the design was changed.

They haven't figured out how to get into backpacking bear food canisters
yet. They will someday, I'm sure!


- Don Baccus, Portland OR <dhogaza at pacifier.com>
Nature photos, on-line guides, and other goodies at
http://donb.photo.net