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Originally Posted by ITSTOCK
Black bear attacks on humans are extremely rare, but it's always best to use caution. Most attacks happen when, as noted, you see cubs. That's a time that you don't want to be anywhere near them. However, most times you'll know that the cubs are around (the mother will act aggressive and make all sorts of noise). BTW, early summer is their mating time, when they are especially aggressive.
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actually, when the cubs are around she's going to be "blustery" which isn't aggression at all. i found
this site the other day and read literally every word written about black bears. i've got this minor obsession with learning about them since i saw those two at DWG.
here are the two articles that i was most interested in:
How dangerous are bluff charges?
Harmless Bluster
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In all fairness, that bear seems incredibly close for you to be laughing and taking pictures, and in retrospect, it would have probably been better for you to just slowly back away. When they are at a distance, you can usually just scream at them and they will run away, but I'm not sure how well that would go over with it so close to you.
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you're right to a point, but getting that close (in the pic) not even a choice of ours. that bear was that close when we saw it for the first time. he silently just showed up. that pic was actually taken from my seat on a rock next to our fire pit. it was only after we really carefully watched and saw that the bear had no interest and wasn't the slightest bit bothered by us that we walked a little closer. as i said, we still watched it and didn't completely let our guard down, so even if the bear decided he didn't want us that close any more, we would have plenty of options. we had pepper spray out and had plenty of lethal defense ready for an extreme worst case scenario. if at any time we would have felt a little uncomfortable we would have just backed up. with that second bear though, backing up (and thinking about defense) was the first reaction because of the way it was acting.
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Either way, it really is an awe inspiring experience. Seeing a bear stand on it's hinds at full upright position is just incredible!
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dead on there, seeing those things out there was one of the best experiences i've had in the woods yet!