Bear destroys thru-hiker tent in Shenandoah NP

[long island bob]

uh...

no.

bear is afraid of human in tent

I have met a half dozen bears in the daytime. (none with young)
They were all incredible cowards (almost as skittish as dear).

A bear in the night time?
I'll let the more experienced folks chime in.

[SouthMark]

Your info is erroneous. Heres one that was killed in 2009:

Actually this does not prove anything in my post erroneous. No where did it say no one has ever been killed by a bear that has lost its fear of people. It only said that they do not become more likely to attack and the incident that you posted does not dispel this.

Quote from your link:
"We don't know for sure, but we feel it was one of the bears who regularly came to her residence."

[Panzer1]

I have met a half dozen bears in the daytime. (none with young)
They were all incredible cowards (almost as skittish as dear).

A bear in the night time?
I'll let the more experienced folks chime in.

Once while deer hunting with my 30-06 I had a bear come close by me and when he saw me he appeared scared and hurried off. Another time, when I was sleeping in a shelter, unarmed, a bear came by and he showed no fear despite my yealing and shinning a flashlight on him. He left when he was good and ready.

Panzer

[vamelungeon]

Once while deer hunting with my 30-06 I had a bear come close by me and when he saw me he appeared scared and hurried off. Another time, when I was sleeping in a shelter, unarmed, a bear came by and he showed no fear despite my yealing and shinning a flashlight on him. He left when he was good and ready.

Panzer

Maybe it's the smell of gun oil! LOL
We should spray some CLP on ourselves as bear repellent...

[sherrill]

a bear destroyed another thru hiker's tent Saturday Night near the summit of Bear Fence Mountain. He mentioned seeing a lot of bears and that they seemed pretty bold.


a bear following behind them on the trail (again at Bear Fence Mountain)

Quite simple, actually. Get them back behind the fence. Problem solved.

[Rocket Jones]

Quite simple, actually. Get them back behind the fence. Problem solved.

Who thought building a fence out of bears was a good idea?

[long island bob]

btw
freon horns have been proven an effective way of driving off polar bears and grizzlies.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3872649

http://books.google.com/books?id=gFl...20horn&f=false

[JAK]

Just because a bear runs away or generally stays clear of humans doesn't mean it is afraid. Weary might be a better word, or cagey. Who knows really, unless you are a bear. I like to think of them as weary. We have 1 for every 2 square miles, on average, and I never see them. Thank goodness they are weary. I try to do my part, but I think it has more to do with the bear hunting. I am not a fan of bear hunting because bait and wait is hardly sport, but it is effective in maintaining a weary bear demographic.

[sherrill]

Just because a bear runs away or generally stays clear of humans doesn't mean it is afraid. Weary might be a better word, or cagey. Who knows really, unless you are a bear. I like to think of them as weary. We have 1 for every 2 square miles, on average, and I never see them. Thank goodness they are weary. I try to do my part, but I think it has more to do with the bear hunting. I am not a fan of bear hunting because bait and wait is hardly sport, but it is effective in maintaining a weary bear demographic.

Do you mean wary?

Besides, Weary is in Maine. He is definitely not afraid of humans either.

[JAK]

lol

Yeah, I guess I did mean wary. I thought the two were spelled the same. As for Weary, wouldn't mind bumping into him in Maine some day. Should I put bells on my pack, so as not to surprise him ?

[vamelungeon]

We can't use bait here in VA for any hunting BTW. I do believe hunting pressure would make bears more wary of humans. I would rather bears are conditioned to "smell human, run away".

[restless]

Where did you get this info?

There is nothing on the SNP twitter feed, web site, or facebook page about this. Their web site has trail closures listed under "hiker alerts" so I don't think they're trying to hide anything.

-pfann

I work for the Park. Spoke with a backcountry specialist today and Bearfence Hut will be closed until at least Tuesday.

[MuddyWaters]

Actually this does not prove anything in my post erroneous. No where did it say no one has ever been killed by a bear that has lost its fear of people. It only said that they do not become more likely to attack and the incident that you posted does not dispel this.

Quote from your link:
"We don't know for sure, but we feel it was one of the bears who regularly came to her residence."

Your post did say this:

"Of the 60 something people killed by black bears since 1900 none were accustomed to being fed or petted. "

The bear in question was presumably accustomed to being fed, (in a later article I think it was verified i posted an early one from the incident, though Im not sure how they verify it, maybe the contents on the stomach also had food linked to the womans feeding as well as her remains.)

So it still appears that statement is incorrect.

All the supporting arguements consist of stories of places where people have routinely fed bears, but no one ever was attacked, so that seems to be the arguement of the piece. That bears which are fed dont attack.

They may not be more prone to attack, I agree. But the simple fact that feeding or petting creates exponentially more contact than avoiding those activities , in itself means that there will be incidents.

By the way I would take all statistics like these with a grain of salt. There are unreported, mis-reported, and erroneous information in there.

A local diver I know is in the books as a victim of an unprovoked shark attack. I wouldnt say the shark was unprovoked, he had a spear in him at the time. People dont always report the whole truth, and authorities cant always piece together facts very well.

[Snowleopard]

NH bear attack May 21, bear killed:

A bear believed to have injured a Center Harbor woman this week has been killed, wildlife officials said.
The bear was a large adult male that exhibited aggressive behavior, according to the Fish and Game Department. It was shot by a Fish and Game officer Wednesday night near the location of several recent incidents involving bears, people and pets.
The department said the bear was shot in the same neighborhood where Jacqueline Berghorn, 55, was injured when she was swatted by a black bear outside her home. Her injuries were not life-threatening.
...
Garabedian said he believes the bear came habituated to being around people because of finding food at homes. He said the bear was no longer afraid of people.
...
Garabedian said previous residents of the neighborhood where the bear was killed had a history of feeding bears.
...

http://www.wmur.com/news/28034082/de...#ixzz1NUylxJ64

[SouthMark]

Your post did say this:

"Of the 60 something people killed by black bears since 1900 none were accustomed to being fed or petted. "

The bear in question was presumably accustomed to being fed, (in a later article I think it was verified i posted an early one from the incident, though Im not sure how they verify it, maybe the contents on the stomach also had food linked to the womans feeding as well as her remains.)

So it still appears that statement is incorrect.

All the supporting arguements consist of stories of places where people have routinely fed bears, but no one ever was attacked, so that seems to be the arguement of the piece. That bears which are fed dont attack.

They may not be more prone to attack, I agree. But the simple fact that feeding or petting creates exponentially more contact than avoiding those activities , in itself means that there will be incidents.

By the way I would take all statistics like these with a grain of salt. There are unreported, mis-reported, and erroneous information in there.

A local diver I know is in the books as a victim of an unprovoked shark attack. I wouldnt say the shark was unprovoked, he had a spear in him at the time. People dont always report the whole truth, and authorities cant always piece together facts very well.

You are correct about all the facts not getting reported. If you will do some more research on the article you posted you will find that her son said that he had just gotten off the phone with her and she was going to try and protect a smaller bear form a large bear with her broom. Draw your own conclusions but the statement may well still be true but hell only one is still not a significant number in the overall scheme of things, except of course to the paranoid.

[nufsaid]

You are correct about all the facts not getting reported. If you will do some more research on the article you posted you will find that her son said that he had just gotten off the phone with her and she was going to try and protect a smaller bear form a large bear with her broom. Draw your own conclusions but the statement may well still be true but hell only one is still not a significant number in the overall scheme of things, except of course to the paranoid.

A black bear will normally run from a determined woman with a broom. Unless it has learned that humans are friendly. In the overall scheme of things the vast majority of black bears choose to avoid humans. Those that choose to chum for bears have reason to fear black bears. And those that resort to name calling when their argument is proven false may want to take another look at their position.

[nufsaid]

You have to be a troll if you think bears that wander into neighborhoods causing no damage need to be hunted.

Sly, at least one of the bears that have wandered into areas where they have not lived in well over 100 years has lost their life without feeding anyone or anything http://www.wral.com/lifestyles/pets/story/9641662/

My whole point is that bears are being protected to the point that their own quality of life is being degraded. The bear population in NC continues to grow. Much like deer and Canadian geese. And thanks for the personal attack.

[Tinker]

"Of the 60 something people killed by black bears since 1900 none were accustomed to being fed or petted. "

The way this reads is that none of the people were accustomed to being fed or petted. Too funny!

[Trillium]

Besides, Weary is in Maine. He is definitely not afraid of humans either.

That would be true. I've met him and went on a hike in one of Maine's peninsulas with him and a group of others.

[rsmout]

My wife and I were hiking southbound in SNP this week and met Moosehead between Gravel Springs and Pass Mountain. He confirmed that it was his tent that was destroyed by the bear. Another hiker had left food outside his (not Moosehead's) tent near the Bear Fence Hut. Moosehead's tent was in the same location. We spoke to the Park Service ranger who wrote the incident report. Apparently, it is quite common for SNP bears to associate tents with food - food does not have to be in or around the tent for a bear to take notice and decide to "open the bag". A target of opportunity.

The ranger (she was working the Swift Run Gap entrance station) also told us about a woman that had her RV at Lewis Mountain (just south of Bear Fence), but pitched a Walmart pup-tent to "store their food so the bears would leave their RV alone." This woman did not lose her food or her pup-tent (or her RV for that matter), but the ranger said the local bears could not have had a better teacher.

So, the moral to the story might be: "It doesn't matter if nothing happened to you because you cooked or stored food in your tent. It does matter to the guy who did things right and still lost his tent."