I submit the presence of human garbage is part of the current natural world.
Are you sure about this? I’m just BARELY getting over my long-held bearanoia and now you’re telling me they ARE as dangerous as I always feared they were? ::shudder:: I might never go on a hike again.
I’m no expert on bears, but everything I’ve heard about them suggest that black bears are typically deathly afraid of people (and even smaller animals like our dogs), hence the phrase “treeing a bear”. Their usual diet consists of small, feeble things like berries, fish, honey, and occasionally carrion. I know they raid food caches, tents, etc., but they can usually be scared off quite easily with loud noises… most bears are easily bigger than humans, but AFAIK they do not typically “fight [humans] for food”, at least in the direct physical sense. Our competition for habitat certainly diminishes their ability to forage, resulting in many cases of unwelcome ursine urban exploration, but all-out “fighting” people for food? That would be pretty scary, and if you’re saying that happens regularly, I’d like to see the evidence. I thought that they were only dangerous when you catch a sow and cub off-guard and they feel threatened, but even then it’s often a defensive charge, not a hunt for food.
And grizzlies are more aggressive, I hear, but even they do not consider humans a primary food source, do they?
I can only agree with 633squadron, be very careful in bear territory (theirs, not yours). In most areas, notably National parcs, bears have some experience that humans are easy food sources, not neccessarily bodily, but discussion with any bear is extremely dangerous, a love pat will maim or kill you. A curious bear is not a nuisance, it is a serious danger to a human being. If you wish to hike in bear territory, ask the locals about it.
Don’t even dream about approaching wild animals with young, even a woodchuck will attack, or a mole, a full out bear attack would be one sided.
Nope, just a secondary food source 
Anything that is bigger than us is potentially dangerous. If it has sharp teeth and is carniverous (or omniverous) and is remotely hungry, then keep away.
People are soft about animals
Boy, are you missing out 
The days of watching bears scavenging trash are now 40 years in the past. No bear is still alive that was “trained” under that system.
Bears are certainly still attracted to human food - their amazing sense of smell pretty well assures this. But standard practices in bear country (e.g. bear-proof garbage cans, rules against food being left outside & within reach) generally keep human-bear conflicts rare.
This is correct, with the exception that a bear will aggressively defend a previously used food source such as the carcass of a dead animal. If you come across a partially eaten carcass, you do well to leave the area immediately.
They do not. A majority of grizzly attacks are due either to the above (bear was defending food) or to a mother defending cubs. In most cases where bears have eaten humans, the human was killed in defense and not as a prospective meal.
I have heard this same quote and logic when someone objects to my feeding small wild animals. “If you feed them, they will become dependent upon the human handouts, reduce their ‘natural’ feeding and the population will increase. Then if you are no longer feeding them, they will be unable to cope and die.”
I say nonsense. If they can adapt to new food sources from me, they can adapt to not having them. Sure, the population may adjust with easy or difficult food sources, but that happens naturally, too. If there are more rabbits, there will be more foxes, and then there are fewer rabbits, then fewer foxes…
However, we’re not talking anything bigger than a raccoon here. I might not feel the same way if there were bears or dinosaurs in the neighborhood.
A couple of wolves were shot just the other day in Oregon for finding livestock to be easier prey than wild animals. Putting wolves back into a settled area and expecting them not to go after easy prey seems to be a lot to ask.
It may be natural but then the feral dogs aren’t surviving without our help, are they?
Last I checked there were almost zero authenticated reports of wolves attacking adult humans. (Small children are very very occasionally attacked).
In constrast to wolves, there have been a few confirmed reports of a (usually desperate) black bear stalking and attacking an adult human as prey. But most attacks are just to chase people away from food/cubs (though of course it’s possible for the chasing to be fatal).
The Sitting Bull of the wolves, presumably.
This isn’t likely to be a problem for these particular wolves, but it could be for other animals that are fed by humans. The animals learn to frequent areas where humans hang out. Unfortunately for them, those are also areas where there tend to be cars and other vehicles. That’s the problem on Assateague Island when humans feed the wild ponies. The ponies then gravitate toward areas where people and cars are likely to be, and a lot of them get killed by cars. Even a large animal like a bear or a moose can be killed or seriously injured by a car.
Well, “No confirmed reports of healthy wolf attacks on adult humans” is how it’s usually phrased, and for good reason.
Aklso ntoe that brown bears are not necessarily so reliable.