Not viable knowledge.
Popular articles by jounalists tend to fall in two camps. Either they over state the danger and talk about being eaten by bears. Or they dismiss them as not being a threat at all.
Reality is somewhere in the middle. Most black bears give humans some room. They can be emboldened by food and protecting their young. Treat them as individuals. Make some noise when you travel so they know you are coming. I like hiking with my dog because she gives me some notice.
And do not carry cupcakes in your pockets.
just 'cause its in the news:
I used to visit Whidbey a lot when living in Kirkland,WA.
Played in Deception Pass quite a bit.
The bear may have swum to the island, but I don’t think they would be able to ‘play’ in Deception Pass as well as a seakayak.
That bear was trying to hotwire the car. The standard bear excuse is, “I was just looking for marshmallows.”
Posting an article about being mauled drinking coffee! That should be a “Safe Zone”.
That was a really uncouth bear.
No intent to treat a mauling lightly, but the thought of being interrupted drinking morning coffee. Do you think bears are attracted to coffee?
According to the article, the sheriffs cite the bear’s predatory behavior and say there was nothing on the man’s property that would have attracted the bear.
This is why I posted the original question so very long ago….the number of apparent predatory Black bear encounters seems to be on the rise over the last 4 years or so and I was curious if I could find first or second hand accounts from around Lake Superior.
The man was camping while building his house. Other people heard his screams and tried to scare the bear off by honking horns. That means other people were right next door. I would think if there was a regular bear visiting, it would have been mentioned during the investigation.
While coffee could pique a bear’s interest the same as any other smell, I doubt the bear was after the coffee. A Black bear silently attacking without warning is predatory behavior. This bad boy was looking for a meal. Just goes to show how quiet something that weighs up to 500 pounds can be.
There have been a few reports from the Thunder Bay area down into Minnesota’s Arrowhead in recent years, but as I recall they all involved dogs or cubs or food in some way. Nothing on the south shore of Superior that I can remember (knock wood - preferably a nice cedar and spruce ADK guide boat).
Pure speculation here, but if he was camping then perhaps he was cooking over a campfire. Bears will definitely investigate chicken drippins and such in fire pits, but that still doesn’t explain the predatory behavior.
Black Bear predation is real.
This is a sad story.
Yeah, but how frequent is the question. It’s more common to get struck by lightening, but us biologists like to quantify, eh?
Most of the reports I’ve read are from hunters in somewhat dense hardwood forest walking wildlife trails. Because they were looking for game, they spotted the bear stalking them and could take some measures to be safe. Plus, they had a long gun, of course. Interestingly, in all cases where a determination was able to be made, the predatory bears were males. There are the other posts here, of course, about people being attacked at their mailbox, etc. but those seem rare.
I’ve talked with DNR wildlife biologists in MN and WI who said lakeshore encounters are rare as long as you avoid wildlife trails to the water and look for sign. They said most reported bear encounters are at homes or breaking into cars at trailheads.
That would make me think twice about drinking hazelnut coffee in bear country. Once a bear gets a hazelnut coffee Jones . . .
That depends. I have run into bears every day working in the bush. I have only had one in my neighborhood one time in 17 years.
I have run into plenty of bears on lake shores and along rivers. I usually avoid tracks on the beach before setting up camp.
Maybe as a species they are concerned about humans ruining their neighborhoods.
It can happen. Once humans move in, the only thing that deters them is double ax murders or ghosts.
Once hazelnut coffee appears, things are sure to go downhill fast.
Already have.