Fatal bear attack list...

[weary]

This is the number we should be concerned with. We have 330,000,000 humans in this country now, 450,000,000 projected by 2050. Habitat destruction about says it all.



It's all about the fear-based attitude we have towards nature. Actually, the leading cause of human mortality in this country caused by "animals" are caused by bee stings. The second are cars hitting deer.



Who writes about river crossings on Whiteblaze all the time? It always comes back to "bear", "bear attacks", and "what gun is the best." Boringly predictable.


This is an oft-heard response to habitat destruction and human chosen activity to disfigure the landscape and pollute the air and water. Why bother, do nothing, and continue business as usual. We're all gonna die anyway.

Who says? Why not have 330,000,000 bears and 2,000,000 humans?

Griz expert Doug Peacock would disagree. He lived with the grizzlys for decades and strongly advised not carrying a personal weapon. Instead, he recommended learning their behavior and areas of foraging, their signs and nighttime sleeping nests.

Would you also consider human extinction to be necessary? If extinction is part of the planetary ecosystem God created for "you"(humans), aren't we then also subject to extinction?....

A very wise post, Tipi Walter. Just add human induced global Warming and it would have said it all. Well almost. In Maine, cars running into moose are a big killer. Unlike hitting deer, which we almost all do, hitting a thousand pound plus moose moose is a big -- and deadly -- deal!

Weary

[buckwheat]

In the event of a giant meteor or comet strike, the only things even slightly likely to survive are the denizens of the deep ...

Well, depending on how big your "giant metor or comet" is, I'd probably agree with you.

The most likely cataclysmic event which would precede the extinction of mankind however would be the next eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano.

Hmmmmmmmm .... anybody notice that big bulge and all those recent earthquakes?

[Rockhound]

Well, depending on how big your "giant metor or comet" is, I'd probably agree with you.

The most likely cataclysmic event which would precede the extinction of mankind however would be the next eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano.

Hmmmmmmmm .... anybody notice that big bulge and all those recent earthquakes?

must be armmegedon week on the discovery channel. I'm voting for the pandemic.

[Rockhound]

or a genetic mutation within the bear population that gives them opposable thumbs, which they will somehow use to convince the American public that bears shound be given the right to vote and evetually, after getting several bear members elected to congress, will amend the second amendment from "the right to bear arms" to "the right to arm bears". Then after stockpiling massive amounts of weapons the bears will rise up and, using their newly mutated opposable thubs to operate their weopons, will wipe out all of mankind. It will be a coordinated attack. Black bears and grizzlies in N. America. Koalas in Australia. Pandas in asia. Polar bears swooping in from the north. And bears, as ill tempered as we all know them to be, will have no mercy and will not stop until they achieve total world domination and the extinction of mankind. Or we could just get hit by a meteorite. who knows?

[buckwheat]

... the leading cause of human mortality in this country caused by "animals" are caused by bee stings. The second are cars hitting deer.

Incorrect.

The CDC keeps track of causes of death. The most recent data is for the year 2005.

The leading cause of human mortality in this country in 2005 caused by "animals" is suicide (1.3% of all deaths), followed by assault (.07% of all deaths).

[Marta]

This happened about a week ago near here not too far from the AT.

http://www.examiner.com/a-1764769~Va...inia_Headlines

What more could a party of bear hunters ask for, but a bear who comes close and hangs around?

[warraghiyagey]

I just found this on wikipedia. I am sure many of you have seen it, but for many of you that haven't, here it is.

Seems like black bears have more fatal attacks more then grizzlys, which I didn't expect. It especially seems like the black bears in Canada are particularly aggressive.

I guess since there are more blacks then grizzly bears the numbers play them selves out, but I still didn't know there were so many black bear attacks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...rica_by_decade

How do I get on this list?

[Hikerhead]

How do I get on this list?

First you have to buy a bear suit. Then you have to go kill someone while wearing it. Lastly you have to make sure someone lives who can tell the story.

"That bear came in and killed my brother and then just jumped in the car and drove away"

[Tipi Walter]

That is not the current consensus.

The settled science is that animals which do not adapt to their surroundings eventually go extinct due to their predation by other animals who do adapt successfully, or through cataclysmic events such as supervolcano eruption or meteor strike. Millions of species have become extinct in this manner. It is part-and-parcel of the circle of life on Earth.

Why should the bears get a break?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0608081621.htm
The usual concensus is human predation for the big North American animals. Even better would be your theory(and others)on a massive meteor strike as it leaves primitive paleo-indians "off the hook" for mammal extinctions, something that irks the large group of people who mock any notion that the "Indians" lived closer to the land or lived better with the environment. So, if the old stone age boys didn't wipe out a species, why are we?

The Chestnut blight was caused by ignorant human trade practices with no regard to guarantined plants. Would you call this normal planetary predation? Or human ignorance? Maybe both are the same.

I wouldn't use the word "necessary." Or even inevitable. But I would say it is possible for humans to become extinct. Maybe even probable.

Humans, I would argue, are animals just like the bears in that we both share a common ecosystem (Earth) and we both have to develop strategies for survival in that system.


Cheers,
Buckwheat

This is a very strong statement and one I agree with totally. Unfortunately, we are taught we are not animals or mammals and instead are constantly reminded of our exalted status, the Diety's chosen ones, the great gift to the universe, and so like King Ant we act accordingly. If it is true we and the bears share a common ecosystem, why then don't we act like it?

[Landshark]

In the event of a giant meteor or comet strike, the only things even slightly likely to survive are the denizens of the deep (like the coelocanth, supposedly extinct until one was caught a few decades ago).
http://www.dinofish.com/

And marshmallow peeps.

[slow]

Show me a 400#lb on the A.T.And if so pic please?They are dumpster divers even @350#.

[take-a-knee]

Show me a 400#lb on the A.T.And if so pic please?They are dumpster divers even @350#.

Dude, subscribe to Georgia Outdoor News (GON), there are NUMEROUS #400 bears killed by hunters all over N. GA every fall, mostly by archers. Most anywhere in N. GA ain't too far from the AT. A friend of mine was hunting on Chestatee WMA several years ago when a guy killed a #400 bear in a food plot, that is about two miles south of Neel Gap, close enough? Okay, how did he know it weighed #400? Because GA DNR requires you to bring it in to be weighed at a checking station.

[buckwheat]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0608081621.htm

Interesting article. I think it's proof of a theory I have. Here's the two interesting paragraphs:

"Woolly mammoths, giant armadillos and three species of camels were among more than 30 mammals that were hunted to extinction by North American humans 13,000 to 12,000 years ago, according to the most realistic, sophisticated computer model to date.

John Alroy, a researcher with the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at the University of California, Santa Barbara, performed the modeling and is the single author of the paper. NCEAS houses the best ecosystem computer modeling capacity available, according to Alroy."

So, according to the sole author of the study, a computer model predicts that prehistoric humans hunted some animals to extinction. How does he know? His computer model predicts it. Who built his computer model? He did. Is it the best computer model available? Yes! According to the sole author of the study and the model!

This is what passes for science today ... one guy, with a computer, modeling his desired outcome, and then assuring us that his model is the best model available (take his word for it). This information is then cited as proof of a "consensus" in science.

[Tin Man]

This happened about a week ago near here not too far from the AT.

http://www.examiner.com/a-1764769~Va...inia_Headlines

that's like pulling a shark out of the ocean and getting in the way of his jaws

[Tin Man]

must be armmegedon week on the discovery channel. I'm voting for the pandemic.

some dude in a saucer lands and says 'your planet?' will signal the beginning of the end of human domination.

[Lone Wolf]

that's like pulling a shark out of the ocean and getting in the way of his jaws

yeah, no ****. the bear was highly provoked and injured. duh! bears ain't a problem on the AT

[Lone Wolf]

Show me a 400#lb on the A.T.And if so pic please?They are dumpster divers even @350#.

come to va., pa., vt., me. i'll show you some

[MOWGLI]

Show me a 400#lb on the A.T.And if so pic please?They are dumpster divers even @350#.

A 650 pounder was killed in the last 10 years near Unionville, NY. That's right off the trail. Some of the biggest bears near the trail can be found in NY & NJ.

[Lone Wolf]

fla. only has 100 pounders

[Lobo]

PA has 800 pounders in the northeast part of the state!

http://gloucestercitynews.typepad.co...on-of-pro.html