Black bear damage

[Life-in-Him]

Owned a restaurant & lived in the Sierras for 42 years. One morning our waitress called saying "get that bear off the porch & I'll come to work." She'd just stepped up onto the 1st step & stared straight into the eyes of a big brown bear.
Another time I was heading off to work & as I started to open the door of the Landcruiser, a black bear stood up in front & started toward me. We did the" around the vehicle dance" several times until I had enough time to get in & drive off.
Worse case was when I came home one evening & found the cook, dishwasher, & a waitress in the parking lot feeding a sow & her 2 cubs hot dogs. What do the bears eat when ignorance runs out hot dogs?
Game & fish arrived the next day with a trap @ 10am & left @ 3pm. Bears came about 7am & about 6pm, but G&F only work 8-5 M-F & it's an hours drive to our place. Can't leave a bear trap without an observer, someone might crawl in it they said.
Lot's more bear stories including cabins ripped open when food was left on dining room tables, & VW's & other vehicles with tops ripped off to get to candy bars or ice chests.
enough for now.

[adeakins]

Originally Posted by JRTJH

The trailer damage occurred at Gorges State Park. The Blue Ridge Parkway closure occurred about 70 miles away from that area and was due to people "feeding the bears and attempting to cuddle bear cubs".....

Both occurred while bears are "feasting to fatten up for winter hibernation" after becoming adapted to having food provided by those "upright walking forest creatures" (humans)....

I'd suspect that most people who hike in Alaska are much better prepared for meeting up with a bear that doesn't see us as a threat, but rather view us as just another meal, a pretty slow, easy to catch meal. Most people don't view black bears as being "dangerous, just like brown or grizzly bears", but they sure are capable of being just as deadly as their larger "cousins".....

Just like the tourists who try to pet bison in Yellowstone or who walk out into the hot springs near north yellowstone or peek over the cliff trying to get a better picture even though the rock ledge they're hanging onto is covered with loose gravel and sand......

Sometimes there's just no rhyme nor reason why people do some of the risky/crazy things they do.... Maybe it's a "hold my beer and watch this" moment, sometimes there may not even be anyone around to impress or to watch them risk peril and death for some unknown reason....

But the fact remains, people do some of the "craziest" or "Stupidest" or "dumbest" or "most assinine" or "just "plain damn dumb stuff"....

The more I read about these "events" the more I understand why truck owner's manuals warn people not to drink the battery acid and why there are "seventy-eleven warning stickers on a 6 foot extension cord"..... YMMV

Bears in that part of NC don’t hibernate. They aren’t very active but they do come out in winter to feed. Makes for a real shock when someone bumps up on a black bear in January or February.

[notanlines]

The Carolina bears enter what’s called torpor. It’s a semi-hibernation state.
Damn, I feel like Sgt Dietrich on Barney Miller.

[adeakins]

Yep. That’s what it is called.

[wiredgeorge]

Originally Posted by notanlines

The Carolina bears enter what’s called torpor. It’s a semi-hibernation state.
Damn, I feel like Sgt Dietrich on Barney Miller.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ScsK_1gSrU

[JRTJH]

Originally Posted by adeakins

Bears in that part of NC don’t hibernate. They aren’t very active but they do come out in winter to feed. Makes for a real shock when someone bumps up on a black bear in January or February.

This is taken from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission website:

"What about bears in North Carolina? Based on hundreds of radio-collared black bears studied across the state, we know that the vast majority of our bears hibernate. Females typically hibernate longer than males. North Carolina’s bears just do it for shorter time periods than their northern cousins."

https://www.ncwildlife.org/Learning/...hern%20cousins. (Read the purple highlighted part)

Seems they DO hibernate, but not as long as bears up here.... That, to me, would be "common sense" as winters here are 6 months long and winters in North Carolina are 3 months (or less) long.... From what I understand about hibernation, it's more a "temperature induced genetic condition" than a "state of residence" condition. Colder longer, hibernation cycle longer/Colder shorter time/hibernation cycle shorter as well....

[sourdough]

I think the hibernation thing is a generalization. I used to think it was just a fact across the board. At our home in the mountains you could see all manner of wildlife from our elevated front deck across the valley and on the mountainside on the other side. During spring, summer and fall you would see them all but in winter we didn't see bears...until one year I was looking out our front window and coming down the other side was a bear in about a foot of snow. He was looking around and snooting stuff - in the middle of winter. I saw that one other time up there over a period of around 25 years. Maybe they were light sleepers or needed a snack?

[JRTJH]

Danny, This is just a WAG (not even scientific) but I'd wonder whether that bear in the snow might not have found enough berries and fish to fatten up enough to make it through the entire winter and his "biologic clock" was interrupted by his "caloric clock" when the berries ran out ?????

Maybe had there been a few more of those "slow upright critters" (either carrying extra food or maybe even becoming food) in his part of the forest, he'd have been fatter and slept longer ?????

[flybouy]

Don't they fatten up on Krispy Kream donuts down south?

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by JRTJH

Danny, This is just a WAG (not even scientific) but I'd wonder whether that bear in the snow might not have found enough berries and fish to fatten up enough to make it through the entire winter and his "biologic clock" was interrupted by his "caloric clock" when the berries ran out ?????

Maybe had there been a few more of those "slow upright critters" (either carrying extra food or maybe even becoming food) in his part of the forest, he'd have been fatter and slept longer ?????

It would not surprise me if it wasn't something different about that bear. The 2nd time we saw a bear it looked very much like the first one. The area we were in was probably not conducive to him/her finding lots of good stuff to eat - we lived on private acreages and the national forest was about 1/4-1/2 mile up the road....and also started at the top of the mountain he was coming down. All the good stuff was about a mile or so out once you got down into the valleys of the forest...I'm thinking it was just young, not bright, lost....don't know but the snow didn't seem to bother it one bit.

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by flybouy

Don't they fatten up on Krispy Kream donuts down south?

They don't get Krispy Kremes unless they live in the more inhabited areas and someone throws them in a dumpster. Me on the other hand CAN fatten up on Krispy Cremes - I love the things. DW does not like them and the nearest place to get them is about 60 miles away so they are a seldom treat. Last time I went to the Krispy Kreme place I bought a dozen then thought I would try to eat them....I ate 2. Sugar and my brain don't work - it makes me dizzy and woozy so after 2 that was it and the rest finally went to the trash after me looking at them for a few days.

[Gamma]

I have seem many people doing stupid wildlife sh*t in the dozen or so Nation parks we have been to. it's amazing we don't read about people being seriously hurt or killed on a daily basis. Goes with the saying "duct tape can fix anything....but stupidity".