The door to the bar was pushed open and a completely dirty and blood-spattered man staggered in. He clung to the wide door with his last strength, staring wide-eyed and open-mouthed at the bar. His eyes flickered frantically between the guests. These in turn had paused in their actions and look shocked to the man at the door, which offered a frightening sight. Before he went unconscious to the ground, he brought in a throaty voice a word about his brittle lips “ Beeeeaaar”.
Of course, I just came up with this scene, but your own fantasy goes strange ways when you deal with the subject of bears. Bears are big, bulky, in many colors and shapes and occasionally attack people. They are faster than humans, swim better and climb even faster. With a single hip, they can tear a person to pieces. Well, maybe not in pieces, but at least kill.
But bears are also peaceful and often misrepresented because of their size. A campaign by the US National Park Service explains to hikers and campers how bears can be dangerous for them. And that happens quite simply by being fed. Whether deliberately or through food that was left behind. This is how bears get used to human food and simply associate people and food and thus lose their timidity. So it can happen that humans and food are not so exactly to be separated. ?
We had the pleasure of seeing a black bear family from close up in Shenandoah National Park, rangers would say, way too close ;-). It’s a wondrous spectacle to watch this cute and playful little bear fooling around in the forest. The mother foraging while pausing to watch what her boys do.

The statistics:
Since the year 2000 there were 29 dead by bear raccoons. 15 in Canada, 3 in Alaska, 2 in Tennessee and one each in New York, New Mexico, California, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Utah and Montana. 17 of them were caused by black bears and 10 by Grizzlies. That’s not so much, considering that 26 people are killed by dogs every year (ok, there are more) and about 90 people are killed by lightning strikes (yes, I know there are several :-))
Leave a Reply