Jogger filming cougar cubs barely escapes mauling by mom

[kennykb]

@rocketpj

Grizzlies are generally herbivores and not likely to predate you, unless you threaten their young or look like you are trying to steal their food. The notion that they don’t like dead meat is utterly wrong, they will defend a carcass. They are huge and scary but actually not particularly aggressive - they don’t have to be as the biggest thing around. That is why playing dead is a viable option with a grizzly, because they aren’t trying to eat you.

Agree that they do not ordinarily see humans as prey, but they turn predatory more often than black bears. Still, they don’t ordinarily attack something that isn’t behaving like prey. Running away elicits a chasing instinct in a predatory griz. And while they’ll defend a carcass, they don’t ordinarily go after carrion.

@rocketpj

Black bears (and their cousins brown) are similar and will almost always run away if they see you. However, once in awhile one of them decides to see what people taste like and become predatory. There are a few harrowing videos of black bears stalking a hiker with lunch on their mind. If a black bear attacks you, fight back with everything you have (as the sign in my neighbourhood says).

You must be using ‘brown bear’ to describe what I’d call a ‘cinnamon bear’ - a black bear with a brown coat. (A subspecies like Ursus americanus cinnamonum or Ursus americanus kermodei) What’s more commonly called the ‘brown bear’ is the European brown bear or the Kodiak bear. Those and the grizzly are all subspecies of Ursus arctos.

Black bears see humans as prey only once in an extremely long while - not even one a year in this country. Black bears do, however, bluff-charge all the time. And they do start to see humans as a food source, and become a major nuisance when they do. Those black bears stalking hikers aren’t necessarily predating on them - they’re mugging them for their food. That’s what happens when they become habituated to humans, and eventually there’s nothing for it but to put the poor creature down. “Fed bear → dead bear.”

@rocketpj

That being said, there is a black bear that literally lives in my neighbourhood and has for years, since the big sow that was here until about 5 years ago disappeared.

Not sure about the last part of that sentence - are you talking about an actual pig, or a bear sow?

And yeah, I live near bear country, too. Every few years one will wander into town, and a little farther out, my brother (or was it my uncle? I don’t remember whether it was before or after my uncle passed away) found a bear taking up residence in his tractor barn. My brother has multiple clips from his security camera of a bear sow sniffing around his house. In some seasons she’ll have a cub or two in tow. Drives the dog crazy!

[rocketpj]

I was referring to a bear sow. We had one in our neighborhood for about 5 years before she died or left. To my knowledge she wasn’t put down, though towards the end a couple of my neighbors had some harrowing experiences (I.e. her poking her nose into a bathroom window while the neighbor was on the throne).

More recently we had a bear wander into a house down the street. The mom & kids hid in the bathroom while her fella tried to scare it out (and actually punched it in the nose at one point). That one was put down as I recall.

10 year old and I came across a mother and cub in a neighbor’s yard last summer while walking the dog. It’s a very usual thing around here. We keep our garbage locked up and make sure the fruit is picked promptly.