AZ Fatal Black Bear Attack

[Pdvdh]

I obviously have no idea what happened in this instance, but you're probably way more likely to get hit by lightning than killed by a black bear.

It does depend on the amount of time a person spends in the midst of bears. Bears are not created equal. And bears behave differently in differing environments.

I watched a black bear stalk my scent trail ~20 years ago, while I was hunting them in Alaska's Kenai Mountain Range. When he finally saw me, he locked his eyes on my eyes and continued toward me, like a dog prepping for a fight. I killed him at 20 feet. Easiest black bear ever. But it was a bit unnerving. I imagined not having a rifle in my hands...

If you're unarmed, you stand no chance.

When I brought the hide and skull in to the local Fish & Game office for the required sealing, I described my experience to the F&G employee. He was the local employee responsible for responding to bear complaints for the prior ~20 years.

After listening to my experience, his comment was "As far as I'm concerned, bears are nothing more than opportunistic predators".

One million to one odds against a bear attacking sound terrific. Unless you're the "one". If you spend one million times more time in bear country than the average person in those statistics, your odds become 100%.

 

[sp6x6]

I agree with above.One time in Idaho a friend had a bull down and I had to go up this ridge to leave area.Smallish black bear treed in front of my.I was archery hunting.Tree so thick with dead branches it only made it six feet up,i went by at about ten yards and that thing was throwing a fit, the make some weird sounds tooI

 

[sea2summit]

Black bears populations are exploding in lot of areas. Bad interactions are increasing. This one is really perplexing since no food, no cubs, just building house drinking coffee. Seems pure predatory attack which is not normally associated with black bears. They do lead the pack in attacks but also have the most opportunity due to high human contact. Horrible way to die.

Makes you reconsider self protection.

I'm highly doubtful. No one just sits drinking coffee when a bear approaches, no matter how small. Something tells me he's been interacting with this bear or feeding it prior to this. Very sad.

 

[Muddyboots]

Assuming he saw bear? Assuming he has had previous interactions? They make a whitetail sound like bumbling buffoon. They are incredibly quiet and can be in top of you before you know they are there. I grew up around black bears and they are so quiet in woods its hard to believe.

 

[Pdvdh]

Nobody has to do anything "wrong" or "improper" to be killed by a bear. It's often as simple as being in a bad place at a bad time.

Failure to arm oneself for the possibility does increase vulnerability in any bear encounter. Pretty much places you at the mercy of the bear.

 

[stazmania]

The thing I find amazing is that none of the neighbors/people that came to help had a firearm. This is a nice little community, but I often hear about robberies and other crimes there. They all should have firearms at the ready for the two legged predators.

 

[Dean2]

Unfortunate for that fellow. I have no idea what the bear population is like in AZ, but clearly high enough to be an issue at least some of the time.

Bear attacks are far from as rare as the media and Granola eaters would have you believe. Actual fatalities aren't real common, but bears acting aggressively, charging, not running off at the scent and sound of humans etc is VERY common and becoming more common as the number of them increases and hunting of them decreases.

I shot bear control in Northern Alberta for a very long time. Black bears are opportunistic in all things food related. The more they are in contact with humans and nothing bad happens to them, the more bold and aggressive they become. Black bears are a predator, they don't attack grizzlies because they get handed their ***, they will attack pretty much anything else. Bear depredation on calf moose is one of the leading causes of calf mortality.

Any bear that does not immediately run at the sight and scent of you is just assessing the risk of trying to make you supper. It is a very real potential threat. Any bear that doesn't Di Di Mau around me immediately is very likely to take a dirt nap so the next poor human it runs into doesn't have a negative outcome. I would strongly suggest you guys take a lot of care around any bear that doesn't show the proper amount of fear of humans.

 

[Pdvdh]

Unfortunate for that fellow. I have no idea what the bear population is like in AZ, but clearly high enough to be an issue at least some of the time.

Bear attacks are far from as rare as the media and Granola eaters would have you believe. Actual fatalities aren't real common, but bears acting aggressively, charging, not running off at the scent and sound of humans etc is VERY common and becoming more common as the number of them increases and hunting of them decreases.

I shot bear control in Northern Alberta for a very long time. Black bears are opportunistic in all things food related. The more they are in contact with humans and nothing bad happens to them, the more bold and aggressive they become. Black bears are a predator, they don't attack grizzlies because they get handed their ***, they will attack pretty much anything else. Bear depredation on calf moose is one of the leading causes of calf mortality.

Any bear that does not immediately run at the sight and scent of you is just assessing the risk of trying to make you supper. It is a very real potential threat. Any bear that doesn't Di Di Mau around me immediately is very likely to take a dirt nap so the next poor human it runs into doesn't have a negative outcome. I would strongly suggest you guys take a lot of care around any bear that doesn't show the proper amount of fear of humans.

Exactly!

You're the perfect hunt'n buddy.

 

[Mark37082]

I just got back from Pigeon Forge. Bears got in the unlocked garbage bin three of the four nights. Nothing to eat in the unlocked bear proof bin. They are very accustomed to people in this area. This makes them dangerous as they have very little fear of humans.

 

[comfisherman]

Wife and I were talking this over, home camping for Father's day...

We were adding up our collective contacts who have been attacked. We had two collective overlap and she had two on her contacts and I had one, so 5 total only counting folks who had skin punctured by bears. Not counting folks who have been rolled by them, don't count a fleeing bear bulldozing someone as an attack.

Kinda a funny past time while sitting in a tent, but not as weird as having 4g in this part of Alaska.


I've been around a lot of them growing up out west. Most mind their own business, but there is always the 1 in 1000 that just like people goes haywire. Most rural areas and villages have stories of evil or demon possessed bears, some within the lifetime of still living elders. Having seen one problem bear taken out, it was about like tweaker behavior... but by a 9.5 foot bear.

 

[JUSTSENDIT!]

This is unfortunate, condolences to his family.