Posted on 06/13/2009 8:04:27 AM PDT by george76
With black bear populations rising, run-ins have become almost commonplace...
Canadian bear researcher Hank Hristienko, who conducted the survey in January, found that 18 Eastern states were seeing more encounters with bears.
In a 2006 attack, a 210-pound male bear killed a 6-year-old girl and mauled her 2-year-old brother as well as her mother who tried to fend off the animal. The attack occurred during a family outing in Tennessee's Cherokee National Forest.
near Prestonsburg, Ky., last year, a bear held tourists at bay inside a cabin until rangers arrived to chase it away.
The U.S. bear population more than doubled between 1989 and 2006, rising from 165,000 to over 350,000...
20,000 reported conflicts between bears and humans in 37 states in a 2006 survey of state wildlife agencies.
Tennessee reported the largest increase, up from 300 to 1,000 over the past 10 years. That was followed by New York, which went from 587 to 1,127, and New Jersey, which jumped from 691 encounters to 1,117.
Frank van Manen, a U.S. Geological Survey research ecologist... bear populations are skyrocketing under state bans or limits on bear hunting.
"What we have seen throughout the eastern United States is quite a phenomenal range expansion of the black bear," van Manen said. "With the range expansion, the likelihood of the encounters is increasing."
14 people have been killed in attacks by black bears in North America since 2000, including two in Tennessee in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Cherokee National Forest...another 10 people were killed by grizzlies during the period, mostly in Alaska and Canada.
In Kentucky, officials opened a hunting season for bears, a move pushed by the state League of Sportsmen to reinforce the animals' fear of humans.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
also road hazards.
But...but... bears have a right to eat people, too.
A 12 gauge slug would put one down, wouldn’t it?
I’m in Dayton, OH and we’ve had warnings of a roaming black bear in our southern vicinity. I’ll be refraining from carrying any pic-a-nic baskets.
There have been a lot of claims about black bear sightings here in extreme southern Michigan in recent years. I don’t think any evidence has been found but people are seeing something.
Cougar sightings are being reported as well. (not the kind commonly found in casinos)
I am in rural WV our county reported 100 bears taken last fall during hunting season.
A.C.O.R.N. will be counting them in the next census so that they can get fair political representation in kongress and be protected from those evil white gun toting bible reading hunters.
A large bear made a complete circuit of our two pastures, house and barns this morning - - not at all worried about any humans - - scoping out our livestock.
This is the fourth bear we have seen in just a few weeks.
The others are here (scroll down)
http://antique-spinning-wheels.blogspot.com
We are about 75 miles from NYC as the crow flies. I am waiting for some bears to turn up in Central Park. A coyote showed up there, was captured, dewormed and given a flea bath with the intention of returning it to the wild, whereupon it died.
He forgot to mention the 12 year old who was pulled from his tent and mauled to death within biking distance of American Fork, Utah ( a major population center in the Provo area).
Bears were **deliberately** introduced into this section of the Wasatch Front of Utah. This mountain front is bounded on both sides by major population centers ( Provo, Salt Lake City, Heber Valley, and Park City) and averages a mere 5 miles wide.
Scratch an environmentalist and under his thin skin is a Marxist who hates people.
A guy I knew who owned a gold mine in northern Alaska carried a 44 Magnum.
A bear was killed by a car a few miles down the road from where I live about five years ago. Forty years ago there were no bears within one hundred miles of my residence. Now, in western Wisconsin and eastern Minnesota, there is a population of bears that might total around one hundred. No one knows for sure, and I haven't seen a population estimate by the DNR. I know one black bear went through a neighborhood five miles south of me. A co-worker took pictures and brought them into work. We live near the Black River, and I've told my wife to be careful going out at night.
Good article, especially for AP.
It puts light on the effect of the increasing number of bears thus living in closer proximity of man.
It’s not just a bear phenomenon either, animal rights and eco nuts continue to insist that cougars, coyotes and now wolves be allowed to increase in numbers and man learn to live with them, that’s a lot of bunk, IMO.
The great majority of the people saying we have to learn to live with predators are the ones that seldom leave their concrete and paved cities other that to go to a park.
We have had maulings and attacks here in Anchorage. The Muni closed a popular trail system because of the ‘bear danger’
I’m am an old fashoded kind of guy, I pay taxes to live in a cipy, not a freaking wildlife park. The State refuses to hunt down and kill bears living the city parks for Pete’s dake.
Pretty soon, we may see folks taking care of business by thier own bad sleves....
Human criminals are not the only reason for Concealed Carry
The AP editors must have missed this one
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