Honestly, I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often. When I've been in the park, I've seen idiots chasing a cub for a better picture. News flash, if there's a cub, Mama Bear will be somewhere nearby & she ain't gonna be happy. She can run faster than you, and she can climb trees, too. Visitors come into bear territory acting as if they're in a friggin' Disney movie. These ARE NOT tame, trained bears!
That happened just a few miles from me. We've been listening to it on the scanner. I've spent many hours in that forest. Most black bears here are timid. Somebody shot this one but it ran off so they are tracking it. Bear attacks here are extremely rare but we have a lot of bears. They don't hibernate here and are fairly active most of the year. We have one that hangs out on our farm and I've seen it a few times from horseback. It's peaceful and hasn't been aggressive.
I can't imagine trying to save one child and end up having the other one killed.
Poor little kid. May she rest in peace.
Sticks & rocks. All because it's illegal to carry a firearm in a national park. Not that it would have saved this poor little girl, but it would of,at least, afforded her a chance.
Black bears will usually shy away from humans unless you block their path to their cubs or their food source. I've been hiking when a black bear came out of the forest and started walking right toward me on the path. It was obvious it didn't see me, their eyesight isn't the best. I stepped off the path and onto a sawed off tree trunk and raised my arms to make myself look bigger.
The bear kept coming and got about 25 yards away, then lifted its nose and starting sniffing. As soon as it got a whiff of me, it turned and darted back into the woods as fast as it could go.
It was neat to see a bear that close and they seem harmless while they're just ambling along, but they are not. Always be careful and know the drill when in bear country. Whatever you do, don't take off and run unless you are very, very close to shelter. They will give chase. Maybe that's what the kids did.
How horrible.......we live in Gwinnett county outside of Atlanta and there have been three sightings of black bears within the past month. One in a park that we walk our dog in every day....another in the parking lot of the hospital and the last was hit by a car. They believe the sightings were three different bears based on when they were spotted.
Frankly being a little old lady who would most likely have a heart attack if I ever saw one I have made my walks in the park very short!! But I do feel bad that these bears are leaving their natural habitat and coming to visit us in a very overcrowded county. One actually was seen a year ago in Atlanta and was eventually killed by a car.
So what do you suggest I do.....stay out of the parks? I just wonder how long they stay in one location...we usually walk the trails through the woods.
It is apparently illegal to carry a pistol for protection at On the grounds of any public park, playground, civic center or other building facility, area or property owned, used or operated by any municipal, county or state government, or instrumentality thereof, for recreational purposes.
I couldn't find anything about national forests.
ping
The only good bear is a dead bear.
Bears
(by Steven Fromholz)
Some folks say there ain't no bears in Arkansas
Some folks never seen a bear at all
Some folks say that bears go around eating babies raw
Some folks got a bear across the hall
Some folks say that bears go around smelling bad
Others say that a bear is honey sweet
Some folks say this bear's the best I ever had
Some folks got a bear beneath their feet
Some folks drive the bears out of the wilderness
Some to see a bear would pay a fee
Me I just bear up to my bewildered best
And some folks even see the bear in me
So meet a bear and take him out to lunch with you
And even though your friends may stop and stare
Just remember that's a bear there in the bunch with you
And they just don't come no better than a bear