> Assuming you meant web page, how about posting the URL? I ask because I > just > googled "bear fatalities" (and got lots of references to dead bears) and > looked > at this page http://www.wa.gov/wdfw/wlm/game/blkbear/blkbear4.htm put up > by the > Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. They say "In North America > approximately 45 fatalities have been attributed to black bears since > 1900. More > than half of those fatalities have happened since 1970." That's not 3 > people a year. Steve, good story about your wife! If I ever meet the two of you in person, remind me not to tick her off. Any woman who runs towards bears is more than I want to tangle with :-) I did a quick Yahoo search on "Black Bear Attacks on humans" and came up with lots and lots of responses. I glanced at them for just a few minutes, and the contradictions and discrepancies were alarming. I can add this, though. Forty five fatalities since 1900 seems too low. I'm in Virginia. In the past two decades, I've probably read in the papers or seen on the news, stories of bear attacks in the state, and it seems like about 7 or 8 people died that I can vaguely recall (in the last couple decades, but my memory could be wrong) - just in Virginia and just in the last 20 years. Although, one was actually in North Carolina, and occurred within hours of my wife and I passing that section of trial (not too far from Grandfather Mountain). Anyway, how are they counted and by whom, and how are they tracked? The other thing is... how many people survived? Forty five fatalities may not be bad, but what if that's 45 dead out of thousands attacked and mauled but lived? You can get awfully close to being number 46 but not quite die. I'd be more concerned with the number and frequency of attacks rather than fatalities. And, by "attacks", I don't mean being charged and having the bajeebers scared out of you, but I mean physical contact and drawing blood to some degree or another. Rick *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Jun 23 2003 - 13:07:30 PDT
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