Bear spray.

[Drew Wiley]

When I was just a kid one of my dad's employees shot the third biggest cougar on record,
a conspicuously tubby 9ft tom well over 300 lbs. He was offered a sum of money by Field
& Stream magazine to publish his life and death account of how he killed the savage beast.
But that all fell thru when his wife accidentally spilled the beans and mentioned how there
was a ruckus in their garbage can at dawn and he had simply stuck the gun barrel thru
the bedroom window.

[Tim Peare]

I've been carrying it in Tahoe only because of the mountain lions. The bears in Nor Cal are very non threatening. I've even had surprise encounters with them within ten feet and they were more scared than I was. The can I carry around is made by MSI (Mace Security International)

[drew.saunders]

This month's Backpacker magazine is the "Bear Issue" with a whole bunch of articles on bears. Regarding bear spray, in short: carry it, but learn to use it before you have to use it.

[Drew Wiley]

Leszet - this past summers jaunt into Sequoia no issues with wildlife except one rattler that slithered into camp down in the canyon. Getting back there into country more spectacular than Yos Valley and absolutely no one else around other than us three, withe
bears everywhere, scratching trees to mark territory and hearing them chomp berries at
nite just a few yards away, but never once actually breaking our informal camp perimeter.
Didn't see any of the alleged heavy cougar population in the lower elevations, but all such
critters are shy. Even the bears during the daytime would stay under cover of thimbleberries and other shrubbery to nap and people watch. Had one stretch his legs once in awhile right beside a fabulous 300ft waterfall. A lot of SEKI isn't known to the
general public, and I'd like to keep it that way. Still places you can walk a week without
seeing anyone else.

[Michael Lloyd]

Big Bend has had a few cougar attacks

I think this one is a little shady (like someone fell down and then created something more exciting) http://www.nps.gov/bibe/parknews/nov...ion-attack.htm

This one is the real deal- http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...icle-1.1018562

This list, spanning 100 years, kind of puts the risk factor (low) in perspective- http://www.cougarinfo.org/attacks.htm

And since this is actually a bear thread, something from Wikipedia- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._North_America

[John Kasaian]

Leszet - this past summers jaunt into Sequoia no issues with wildlife except one rattler that slithered into camp down in the canyon. Getting back there into country more spectacular than Yos Valley and absolutely no one else around other than us three, withe
bears everywhere, scratching trees to mark territory and hearing them chomp berries at
nite just a few yards away, but never once actually breaking our informal camp perimeter.
Didn't see any of the alleged heavy cougar population in the lower elevations, but all such
critters are shy. Even the bears during the daytime would stay under cover of thimbleberries and other shrubbery to nap and people watch. Had one stretch his legs once in awhile right beside a fabulous 300ft waterfall. A lot of SEKI isn't known to the
general public, and I'd like to keep it that way. Still places you can walk a week without
seeing anyone else.

I've noticed that the bears in SEKI aren't as big as they were when I was a kid. I thought it was my imagination but I asked one of the rangers anyway. She said that the super-sized bears they used to have were that way because they ate a lot of garbage and for the last 15 or 20 year simproved food storage for campers and more secure garbage containers had put the critters back on a more natural diet
They still have plenty of "super bears" in Mammoth though!

[Drew Wiley]

John - I know that bears are still a significant pest down in Cedar Grove, up at Kearsarge
Pass and adjacent Rae Lks area - but these are heavily visited areas where one would
expect such problems. Had a long sit down in the handmade rocking chair at the Roaring River backcountry patrol cabin last yr, just before heading into remoter country, and the
longtime ranger there filled us in with all the details. Quite different than Yosemite. Basically, rogue bears get one warning and are chased off. If they don't learn the lesson
they're not deported but culled. And those backcountry bears do look very healthy with
shiny coats and are relatively small; and there are plenty of them. The policy seems to be
working; and an added benefit is that the rangers aren't all anal and uptight about carrying
heavy bear canisters around, except in the handful of proscribed areas noted above. The
same goes down in the Mineral King area. But when I enter Yos NP, its usually from the
south (Granite Cr or Norris Cr) or over the top from the North boundary, and bears seem
to be a non-issue in those quieter areas too.

[Drew Wiley]

Michael - my mother knew of a 3-yr old girl killed and eaten by a cougar in Oregon; but
that was back even before WWI. Two joggers in Colorado were killed; but that was by
a captive adolescent cougar that was released and didn't know how to hunt properly,
had become habituated to people, yet wasn't really a true pet either. And the problems on
Vancouver Is are known. We did have one genuine incident here on the Calif coast, which
Vaughn referred to already. And I suppose it's only a matter of time before one of our local
suburbs has an incident with someone trying to shoo a cat with a broom or something. They are getting bolder. But it's amazing how long it's taking them.

[rguinter]

Research has shown that bear spray is more effective than guns and that using a gun doesn't actually make you safer.



I can never understand fact that anyone would not respect an animal that can easily kill you. Somehow as a species we have lost this basic understanding of how nature works. Then you get people who think it's OK to photograph a grizzly at close range and end up getting killed.

Oh and if you think black bears are not to be taken seriously and that only grizzlies are dangerous. Have you ever had a close range stand-off with an aggressive black bear that tracked you through the bush? I have and I certainly wasn't thinking "Oh good, it's only a black bear I will be fine."

I too experienced one of these standoffs at about 10-feet distance. The bear had been tracking me for a couple miles through thick brush. Happened circa 1995 in the area east of Mt. Katahdin. I was unarmed. Never went back in those woods unarmed again.

Anyone wanting more info can PM me. I am lucky to be alive but was able to defend myself in a very unusual manner.

Bob G. rguinter@yahoo.com

[rguinter]

[QUOTE=Steve Smith;978792]Humans violating the bear's territory? I think the bear has more right to kill the human than the other way round.


Steve.[/QUOT

Interesting argument.

Until one realizes that all territory on earth was once "bear's territory" until it was settled.

Bob G.