bear!..scream?run?or play possom?

[vf457l]

I have had a handfull of bear encounters while camping and hunting in NJ and PA. I have a few good pics in my gallery of bears I saw in NJ on the A.T. All I do is keep an eye on them without making eye contact, they take that as a threat.And I either back away slowly or just stand there and let them go on their way. I am not worried about being attacked.

[DonQuixote]

Just grin them down.

Nothing is as disarming as a full ear-to-ear grin.

[jpepper]

back in '94 the bear at cosby knob shelter followed me up the trail for maybe 15 min. i talked at 'em, gyrated and contorted, clapped and farted but nothing could turn him around. when i ignored him he finnally split..........maybe this all had something to do with some boy scouts tying thier trash up on the fence

[mweinstone]

your farts smelled good to him. your mistake was the farting. the bear was like,.....snnnnnif,.....mmmmmm.......macs and cheese with pepperoni.

[jpepper]

ahhh ha!! left him a little trail treat i guess...........they do smell like blueberries...................

[jpepper]

and pepperoni..........

[mweinstone]

charge the bear full on. chase that son of a bitch till it says uncle. kick in its den and take his berries and smack him around a little. then put a leash on that sucker and put him to work as my trail lacky.he can wash dishes,scare hikers away to make more space for me.

[hikerjohnd]

I had my first real encounter this past week. As I passed the water source at Rock Spring Top, there was a bear drinking from the spring. I had never been quite that close to a bear before (30-50 feet maybe). As I hiked along the trail, the bear looked up and I froze. He looked up at me, blinked, then went back to drinking. I very slowly moved to the side of the trail and kept moving. I am glad I did not need to stop there and get water, and looking back I do not know what I would have done if I did need to get water. As to the bear - he was definitley an older cub - maybe 2-3 feet tall (on all fours) and very skinny. I have no illusions that I would have won in a fight, but I easlily outweighed him and I think that contributed to my lack of terror (although I freely admit I was very afraid)

So, having survived the experience, I do not really think there is a right or wrong way to deal with any situation - the circumstances will dictate the response.

[frieden]

I just finished watching Grizzly Man. I'm glad I did. When I heard the story, I thought the guy was an idiot, getting so close to the bears. After watching it, I realize that he didn't die because of his bears. He stayed at the feeding site, after his bears left. New, desperate bears moved in, and he stayed anyway. They were so desperate for food, they were diving to the bottom for dead salmon. They were literally starving. You don't "hang around" any starving animal.

It reminded me of a feeling I had, when I was around some strange squirrels. I know the ones around here, and they know me. They grew up with me. They will come running down the sidewalk, when they see my car. I don't let them get really close to me, but unless I startled them, I doubt they would bite. I was out in the woods out west, and came across some large squirrels. It's hard to explain, but the feeling I got, along with their mannerisms, made me feel nervous. These were different, and not what I would call friendly. They were just squirrels, but I would not have turned my back on them.

Treadwell tried to act like these strange, desperate bears were just like his friend bears.

If you have wildlife friends, don't assume that all of them are like that. There are good and bad in all species. A healthy respect (and distance) of wildlife is a good idea.

[Ridge]

We don't need to turn this thread into a GrizzlyMan thread but I will say this. Treadwell was told by Rangers if he cared about these bears he would leave them along and obey the NPS rules for camping and for distance rules concerning bears. He also was told if he gets killed by one then the bear(s) responsible would be destroyed, possible several bears. He was asked to keep bear spray just in case of an attack, if he could repel an attack then he in essence saves the bears life. He refused, mainly because he was so stupid that he actually believed the bears were his guardian angels and they would never harm him. Well, that theory turned to bear crap fast enough. If he really loved them like he claimed, he would have keep spray around just in case. He had a death wish, no doubt.

[FLHiker]

I saw part of that last night also. My take - and I'm not trying to be funny - is he had metal health issues, and it's a shame that it was not ID'ed and addressed before Tim, his girl friend, and the bear(s) had to die.

[frieden]

He had issues, but he said on camera multiple times that he had issues. He knew, and felt that being out in the wilderness was his therapy. We've all been there at some level.

He wasn't killed by his bears - the bears who knew him. They didn't "turn" on him, which is what people make it sound like. He broke the common sense of the bears, stayed way past season, and put himself (and his girlfriend) at the mercy of the "criminal element" of the bear population. These were the cutthroat, waterfront bears, who were desperate for food. He proved his point that he could live among grizzly bears, without being harmed. .....for something like 13 seasons!

It would be like if I walked down the street in my subdivision every night for 13 years, and people warned me not to walk at night. Then, out of the blue, I walked around the worst part of town at night, with a Rolex on my arm. People would say, "see, we told her not to walk at night!" It would have nothing to do with "night"; it would have to do with "location". The bears didn't "turn" on Treadwell. For some reason, out of the blue, he walked out into the bad part of town wearing a Rolex.

Why? Well, if I had to guess, I would say it was because of his girlfriend. He looked extremely sad in the last tape. She didn't want to be out there, and was scared of the bears, but she loved her boyfriend. It is entirely logical to think that she told him that she wouldn't come out again, and that he would be facing the possibility that he wouldn't go out with the bears for awhile. That doesn't make her a bad person by any stretch of the imagination, but it would explain why he wanted to stay as long as possible - even past common sense.

Other than the one who killed them, I don't think he endangered the bears. He wasn't feeding them; they weren't relying on him for anything. He was just living among them, like Jane Goodall. (sp?) The bears would not have trusted a stranger, unless they were with Treadwell.

[Ridge]

Jane Goodall was a scientist, Treadwell was suicidal nut. Goodall was killed by natives, Treadwell by the bears. Treadwell's watch was found on his detached arm, so robbery can be ruled out. I hear someone is thinking about a sequel to "Grizzly Man" called "Grizzly Chow".

[TIDE-HSV]

is still alive - see www.janegoodall.org. You are probably thinking of Diane Fossey...

[Footslogger]

Aren't the dangerous bears the ones that have bear bells in their stomachs at autopsy ??

'Slogger

[FLHiker]

is still alive - see www.janegoodall.org. You are probably thinking of Diane Fossey...

I thought so too. - - reminds me of one of my favorite Far Side cartoons- the one where the one chimp is cleaning the other chimp, finds the human hair and says "out with that tramp Jane Goodall again?" (or something like that)

Jeff

[frieden]

Jane Goodall was a scientist, Treadwell was suicidal nut.

I know everyone knows this one:

What is the difference between a scientist and a suicidal nut?

A piece of paper!

[Ridge]

Jane Goodall is alive and well, she was not killed. Dian Fossey was the one killed.

[strnorm]

Firecrackers work very well

[mweinstone]

being human repels all animals but dogs. we are king of the jungle. caught in a stare by a bear? lift your pinky finger or bat an eye lash and he runs like a bandit who just stole his own life.