Lemme get this straight. After an autopsy reveals that a bear attack occurred, authorities decide to track the responsible party down and kill it? Is this right?
I could understand if the bear was going from door to door*, or robbing banks, or holding hostages. But the bear had long since left the scene (apparently, because there was enough time to have an autopsy performed).
Why was this bear hunted down & killed- because it killed a human? Is this supposed to serve as a deterrant to other bears? Bears are often aggressive by nature; in many encounters between man & bear, man loses. Why not just hunt them all down? If we don’t do that, it’s possible that another human may lose his or her life.
It’s my understanding that wild black bears normally will steer clear of humans, but once they’ve become desensitized (normally because they’ve become fond of our rather tasty garbage) they’re hard to keep away. Any bear that’s bold enough to enter a house is not a bear that’s going to disappear into the woods and never be seen again.
I say they round up the usual suspects and interrogate these bears.
Reminds me of a joke.
The FBI, CIA and NSA are being on their field interrogation tactics and how effective they are. The teams are sent into the woods to find a certain rabbit.
I don’t remember the body of the joke but the punchline results in the NSA (FBI and CIA have already failed) coming out of the woods with a bear who looks the worse for wear and who keeps saying “Okay, Okay, you’ve found me out. I confess. I’m a rabbit!.. I’m a rabbit!!..”
Absolutely not - I am all for these shark attacks you have been hearing about and things of that nature! I mean, I don’t want my daughter to be mauled by a bear or attacked by a shark, but in general, I am all for the human species being put into its place by the occasional natural disaster. In a sick way, I think that it is great when a storm wipes out a couple of dozen people on top of Mt Everest - what are they doing up there anyway? Same with the shark attacks - you’re on their turf, so don’t surprised if you get to the hospital without a leg.
Well…if a 93 year old woman were killed by a bear, there would be no need for an autopsy to determine the cause of death. The carnage would be sufficient evidence for determination.
What a way to die.
We’ve had experience with very bold black bear here in our area. The area I live in borders a state forest, and an urban area 50 miles to the north of us was having a problem with bear overpopulation. In a three month period, 35 black bear were live trapped in the urban area and relocated in the state forest. So they were already somewhat desensitized to human presence, hence their boldness. Most of the time the major damage is nothing more than a few trashed bird feeders and garbage spread all over the place. Evidence of a bear in the area becomes common knowlege very quickly, and by excercising a little caution by pulling bird feeders and keeping the trash cans in a garage for awhile they usually move on to riper pickings.
But there have been a few horror stories, too. Nearest neighbor, 5 miles away. Middle aged widow woman, lives alone in a trailer in the woods. She has power and water, but no phone. She had a resident sow with two yearling cubs that just would not move on, so she called the DNR for assistance. They installed a live trap on a Friday morning and left it for the weekend. The trap worked, it caught the cubs less than an hour later. Two cubs in a live trap, pissed off mamma bear, middle aged widow woman trapped in her house for almost three days with no phone. Mamma bear charged the trailer repeatedly every time she heard a sound or saw movement at a window. By the time the DNR truck came on Monday afternoon to check the live trap, mamma bear had ripped the front steps off the trailer, ripped off all the skirting, had gotten under the trailer and torn out most of the insulation from the floor, and was soooo pissed off that she charged the truck when it pulled in. They ended up tranquilizing her.
Middle aged widow woman was scared, but she said she spent most of the weekend worrying about the cubs in the live trap with no food or water.
But back to the original question…
I got to think that the bear in question was more than just desensitized to human presence. I’m thinking that a bear so bold that it enters an inhabited home has something wrong with it to begin with. It may have been injured, maybe by an idiot with a shotgun that wounded it, maybe it was hit by a car and had some broken bones, maybe a tree fell on it’s head. For whatever reason, it was certainly a rogue bear and in this instance, after it had already killed one person, I would say that finding it and killing it was justified.
We have a summer house in the Adirondacks that has had more than the usual number of bear incidents in the area this summer. For the most part, they come around, knock over the garbage and enjoy some…ahh…fine dining. But this summer, they’re much bolder, coming up on the back deck and peering in through the windows.
While they don’t attack humans, and we’re content to leave them alone, if they had a murder conviction on their rap sheet I’d feel a whole lot different.
Couls it be that it is not a bear overpopulation problem at all but a human overpopulation problem where more and more folk are moving to bear country ?
I was under the impression that once a bear gets a taste for humans, they continually seek it out. Thus, bears involved in killings/attacks are eliminated. While this makes sense, it could be complete Hollywood hogwash.
I don’t think this bear attack was an accident… I think after nagging her husband for 50 years… he hired old “Hit-man-Yogi” to do the Job! Now don’t you go messing with Don Yogi or Don Booboo, or you’ll wind up sleeping with the picnic baskets… capeesh?
Casdave (I’ll get the confidence to give the “quote” thingy a try soon, I promise).
Could be, but maybe not. The urban area I spoke of was settled about 100 years ago, and has been slowly dying since the 1970’s when last major employer (a foundry) closed it’s doors and there has been little to no new growth since then. A different way to look at it might be to say that the wildlife was attempting to reclaim what was originally theirs since they could sense the human presence declining.
I don’t think I worded that very well…
I too really resent the look of shock and surprise on the faces of people that have had an encounter with wildlife after they build their million dollar homes smack dab in the middle of a migration route. Or they build a quaint little weekend cabin for half a million that neighbors a dairy or hog farm and are surprised that on some days, when the wind is right, they can actually smell the manure.
WTH(man some of you people are just whacked enviromental whacos) Of course track and kill that bear. And I say shooting it is to good for it I think you should maw it to death with giant claws like it did to that poor ole lady.
Not trying to bait you or anything, but based on that remark I assume you are heavily in favor of capital punnishment for all murderers?
What if the bear is tracked back to a group of two, maybe three bears. Kill them all? What about a mother taking care of her bear cubs- kill her too? How about a person who wanders into bear territory and gets mauled- kill all bears in the vicinity?
Yes KILL them all I mean afterall they are harboring a known killer. You confused me if it is a killer mom that killed ole lady then kill the killer cubs too because they will probably grow up and be ole lady killers like their mama.
I think your analogy about the guy wondering in bear territory is totally not relevant to the original question raised in OP. So I am not going to bother with answering it. Oh what the heck, the guy would not be mauled in the first place if he wasn’t forbidden into carrying a gun by the animal right whacos so he wouldn’t have got mauled in the first place.
I, too, have heard the tale that a predator that kills a human acquires a taste for human flesh. I, too, am unaware whether it is true or not.
Whether or not the “taste” story is true, it is certainly reasonable to fear that a bear that ignored the species’ general shyness of humans so far as to invade a human house is a danger and should be killed if possible. Especially if it is female and its cubs could learn to hunt in the same fashion their mother does.
No. Human encroachment is a small factor. Bears populations throughout the country have risen considerably in the past few years due in large part to conservation efforts which preserve habit, limit hunting, and restrict development. They’re experiencing a renaisance and returning to their former ranges and populaiton levels. (There’s LOTS of information on the web on this topic.)
As an avid outsdoorman, I have encountered many bears in the wild. In their natural state, black bears are shy and will flee into deeper woods when they realize a human is close enough to be a threat. I have seen a bear run up the trail in my direction and veer off at the last moment when it realized I was a human. I have also surprised bears in deep underbrush. I’ve never been harmed or intimidated because I understand bear behavior. I’ve also never had my food stolen or been harassed while preparing food because I take the proper precautions to ensure my safety and the safety of any bears in the area.
Nuisance bears are almost always the creation of dim-witted humans who don’t properly dispose of garbage, or feed the animals in hopes of a a few snapshots and a story tell the folks back home in the big city. Bears aren’t stupid, they’ll go where the easy food is. What’s worse is that female bears will teach this unnatural behavior to their young. As a consequence, their natural abilities atrophy and they lose their wild instincts. Unfortunately, these bears usually can’t be rehabilitated, and must be destroyed. They do not acquire a “taste for human flesh”. That is a myth. A fed bear is a dead bear. A bear that is unafraid of humans is not a wild bear.
Recently, in Lincoln, NH, several bears had to be captured and destroyed because despite posted warnings and heavy fines, tourists set their garbage out in front of a bear-proof dumpsters so that they could sit comfortably in their cars and watch the show. It’s despicable.
Bears who wander into suburbs or backyards are often juveniles in search of new territories. When they are old enough to leave the protection of their mothers, they must avoid males in the area who will kill the new competition.