[QUOTE=muldoonthief]
Do they do this for the same reasons lions do? They kill cubs who are not their own in order to bring the females into estrus quicker. This is a survival mechanism - it increases the number of their own offspring (more receptive & fertile females). It’s not related to feeding or defense, but producing lots of offspring is a genetic survival mechanism.
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Most likely. Polar bears do it too.
[QUOTE=Chefguy]
Most likely. Polar bears do it too.
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Is it true that polar bears not only will actively stalk human prey, but also are the only animals that will do that? Or is that an Urban Legend?
[QUOTE=Siam Sam]
Is it true that polar bears not only will actively stalk human prey, but also are the only animals that will do that? Or is that an Urban Legend?
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They absolutely will, but it’s probably because they think it’s a seal standing on its flippers, not because they’re thinking “Oooo, man-meat!”. Anything on the ice is prey to a polar bear.
[QUOTE=Siam Sam]
Is it true that polar bears not only will actively stalk human prey, but also are the only animals that will do that? Or is that an Urban Legend?
[/QUOTE]
Polar bears will stalk anything that looks like prey. Including humans. They don’t know that it’s a human they are stalking at all – most polar bears have never seen a human (and vice versa).
As far as the ‘only animals that will do that’, it depends on your definition.
Lions & tigers as a species do not normally stalk humans, but there are examples of individuals called ‘man-killers’ that do deliberately stalk and kill humans.
I have seen a miniature poodle stalking a stranger prowling around outside a house, and when he finally came onto the patio (which she could reach thru her doggie door), she attacked him – and in quite a ‘bloodthirsty’ manner – she definitely drew blood from him! But she wasn’t stalking him for food, she is overly well fed. Does that count as stalking?
[QUOTE=Siam Sam]
That reminds me of the midget Resistance fighter from Prague who ran into a shop in Budapest while being chased by the Nazis. He begged them to hide him. Fortunately, the shop was able to cache a small Czech.
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I heard a similar story. The circus came to town, and the midget psychic from the sideshow went on a killing rampage. He broke out of jail later that night. The next day, the headline in the local paper screamed, “Short Medium at Large!”
[QUOTE=Chefguy]
Charlie Vandergaw, who apparently has no qualms about putting others in danger, as well.
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That is scary on so many levels.
I cannot find the original article, but Canoeist fights off bear has always stuck with me.
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir]
I heard a similar story. The circus came to town, and the midget psychic from the sideshow went on a killing rampage. He broke out of jail later that night. The next day, the headline in the local paper screamed, “Short Medium at Large!”
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Somehow related in a Cosmic Way:
Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, but when they lit a fire in the craft, it sank, proving once again that you can’t have your kayak and heat it, too.
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir]
I heard a similar story. The circus came to town, and the midget psychic from the sideshow went on a killing rampage. He broke out of jail later that night. The next day, the headline in the local paper screamed, “Short Medium at Large!”
[/QUOTE]
Shouldn’t that be “Small Medium at Large”? 
I think a war journalist is more of an apt metaphor than a soilder. War journalists do go out of their way to go where things are more dangerous. They are seeking out the places where the bombs are actually falling and spend time with some of the most dangerous people on Earth.
[QUOTE=Chefguy]
They absolutely will, but it’s probably because they think it’s a seal standing on its flippers, not because they’re thinking “Oooo, man-meat!”. Anything on the ice is prey to a polar bear.
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When I took a Siberian Ethnology seminar in grad school, there was a whole section on how polar bears were regarded by Siberian people. The polar bear is a powerful cultural icon and there’s quite a mythos built around them. For instance, if someone was attacked by a polar bear, the Chukchi (IIRC) considered them dead even if they survived, and would shun them (the people, that is).
Again, this came from one grad seminar, so take it for what it’s worth.
[QUOTE=lisacurl]
He was on Park Service land. The bear who was protecting the site where the bodies of Treadwell and his girlfriend were found was shot by rangers when they were retrieving the bodies. Another bear charged the rangers at that time and was also shot. The first bear was shown to have eaten of the couple’s remains, although it’s not certain that it was the bear which attacked them.
So let me correct, he’s responsible for two bears being destroyed.
Edit to add - thanks, Lieu, for getting there first. I’ve been out all day at a training class.
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Interesting logic.
[QUOTE=Labrador Deceiver]
Interesting logic.
[/QUOTE]
No, just the regular sort.
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir]
I heard a similar story. The circus came to town, and the midget psychic from the sideshow went on a killing rampage. He broke out of jail later that night. The next day, the headline in the local paper screamed, “Short Medium at Large!”
[/QUOTE]
That reminds me of the guy who escaped from a lunatic asylum and went straight to a laundromat where he had sex with three women and then fled into the night: next morning’s scaremongering headline read NUT SCREWS WASHERS AND BOLTS!.
[QUOTE=lisacurl]
No, just the regular sort.
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Yeah, despite the fact that you have done nothing to demonstrate how he was actually, you know, responsible for the deaths of those 2 bears.
[QUOTE=Labrador Deceiver]
Yeah, despite the fact that you have done nothing to demonstrate how he was actually, you know, responsible for the deaths of those 2 bears.
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He knew as well as anyone what the standard response is when a bear attacks a human. He provoked the attack and the response followed.
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.]
Rug addicts are weird.
[/QUOTE]
It’s easy to see how they might seriously annoy a bear.