I concur with Michael Daly. In the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, where contact between black bears and humans is an everyday occurence, the last two predatory attacks on humans by black bears that I know of were roughly 50 years apart, and an autopsy of the second bear revealed that it might have attacked only because it was starving due to plastic trash blocking its digestive tract. I think one's odds of dying on the highway on the way to the BWCAW are greater than that of being attacked by a predatory black bear in the BWCAW. BTW, the person who was attacked by the second bear a few years ago survived the encounter, though he was bitten around the head. The bear was beaten off with a canoe paddle by the man's son. Most bear "attacks" in the BWCAW are really just bluffing attacks, as Michael pointed out, or the bears cuffing people who come too close to them. I made over 45 trips to the BWCAW, and had a bear in camp only once. Never carried a gun, though I did carry some pepper spray for a while that I never used. Chuck Holst *************************************************************************** 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 Tue Jun 24 2003 - 03:28:44 PDT
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