All Things Bear

Had my first bear encounter this past week while paddling the Moose River Bow Loop. Fortunately, I don't have a dramatic story to tell. Then I came across this on CNN this morning. Many of us know the drill but this is pretty well done and worth a read.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/bear-encounters-prevent-attacks-wellness/index.html

Normal not to have a dramatic story to tell.. Granted there may be habituated bears in Camden but those in the North Maine Woods are skittish as they are hunted. As an aside its time to be canoeing in orange.

yellowcanoe said:

Normal not to have a dramatic story to tell.. Granted there may be habituated bears in Camden but those in the North Maine Woods are skittish as they are hunted. As an aside its time to be canoeing in orange.

Click to expand...

The one bear we know of in Camden only comes into town to visit the Rankins hardware store.

yellowcanoe said:

Normal not to have a dramatic story to tell.. Granted there may be habituated bears in Camden but those in the North Maine Woods are skittish as they are hunted. As an aside its time to be canoeing in orange.

Click to expand...

Yup, at Spencer Rips portage I bumped into a husband and wife preparing lunch on the tailgate of their truck after a morning of bird hunting. They shared a cup of clam chowder and half a ham and cheese grilled sandwich with me. On the Appalachian Trail they call such folks "trail angels." It was a delightful visit.

the only way bear is a danger to you in that area is if you are hauling two dozen Dunkin Donuts..filled with jelly. That's what hunters use for bear bait! Stale of course.

This group gets out in wild country. I would caution people that bears with little experience with humans can be pesky. They are smart and very curious. The bears that would not leave us alone were the ones in Alaska that had never seen humans.

I lived smack dab in Bear Heaven for a few years, maybe fifteen miles south of Shenandoah National Park. I'd hike maybe twenty miles a week on local trails and the AT, and springtime was bear time. August/September was rattlesnake time. I'd see three or four a week, mostly heading directly away from me. I've never been charged but I've had sows stand off and pop jaws at me from pretty close, thirty yards or so. I had a young boar that learned to open my truck door at night; I'd come out and the door would be open and I'd have muddy paw prints on my seats. He learned from cars on the BRP that had food in them, I never kept food in my truck. There's plenty of hunting pressure so they're not eager to hang around unless they've been habituated to food.
I came back from a trip one day to a break-in, my front window screen was ripped out and my kitchen was torn apart. I got a big adrenaline rush and ran to check my guns and valuables until I realized people hadn't been in my house, it had been a bear. He tore the shelves down and ate what he could and then skedaddled. The best bit was, I had a bowl for fresh food on my counter and it had apples and onions in it. The apples were all gone but the onions were lined up no the counter, each with an exploratory bite mark in it. He knew what he liked.

I'm not an actuary and these numbers are google-sourced and not fact-checked. Feel free to correct them. Otherwise, take them for entertainment value only.


A person’s chance of being attacked by a bear is................................................................................1 in 2,100,000

Your odds of dying after being attacked by a grizzly bear is ..........................................................11%

The odds of drowning in the United States are ....................................................................................1 in 10,386

The odds of drowning in a swimming pool ............................................................................................1 in 5,782

Deaths per 100 million miles driven ..........................................................................................................1.33

The odds that one will be struck by lightning in the U.S. during one's lifetime ......................1 in 15,300.

Odds of being a victim of homicide ..........................................................................................................1 in 18,050

The odds of winning the Powerball lottery .............................................................................................1 in 292,200,000

Sweetfancymoses said:

A person’s chance of being attacked by a bear is................................................................................1 in 2,100,000

Click to expand...

This statistic is meaningless unless one knows the population at risk. For example, people who live in cities and suburban areas, which probably predominate the U.S. population, would obviously be at far lower risk than people who live in, or hike or canoe trip in, bear country.

Meanwhile, black bears are now climbing down the volcanic caldera walls and swimming in the USA's deepest lake:

Glenn MacGrady said:

This statistic is meaningless ...

Click to expand...

I agree, my odds of winning the powerball are negligibly less by never buying a ticket.

The chances of an incident go up by a lot when you see them every day.

Most people have a bear story or two in the whole paddling careers. Some people have lots of them, as in hundreds.

ppine said:

The chances of an incident go up by a lot when you see them every day.

Click to expand...

Or when they’re coming to see you everyday! I can thank my trailer trash neighbor for making them so interested in food sources other than my apple trees or berry bushes.

"The reason these villagers – many from generations of tough mountain folk who lived as hunters and shepherds – are so fearful is simple: a neighbour, while on a run last year, was mauled to death by a female bear."

"The attack on Andrea Papi, 26, as he jogged in the Dolomites, shocked Italy, sparking a national debate over the wisdom of a policy to reintroduce brown bears here. The clash pitted politicians against animal rights activists, conservationists against local people. Meanwhile, the bear, though spared from being put down by the country's top court, is now trapped in captivity, with wildlife experts complaining about the cruelty of her 'jail' sentence."