Never Trust A Black Bear

A bear may look cute and cuddly like a toy bear, but people who live in bear country know looks can be deceiving. They also know that if a person is within 100 yards of a bruin, his or her life could be in danger.
"These wild bears are not Disney cartoon characters," Marquette author Richard P. Smith said. "A black bear can outrun a horse on flat ground for 50 yards, and they possess incredible strength and agility. They are very unpredictable and can cause great harm or death to an unwary person."
Smith has written Understanding Michigan Black Bears: The Truth About Bears and Bear Hunting. It can be ordered directly from

Smith Publications
814 Clark Street
Marquette, MI 49855

It is available for $19.50 postpaid. He also has written Black Bear Hunting, and it sells for $38 postpaid, at the above address.
Michigan’s black bear season first begins on Sept. 10 in the Upper Peninsula, and about a week later in the Lower Peninsula bear management units.
Black bear encounters can be sticky or the bruin will run at the first sight or smell of a human. Each bear encounter can be different, but attacks are rare.

Here are some recorded black bear attacks where the animal didn't follow the rules.

• The Early 1900s: Frank Devereaux, of the Cheboygan area, was attacked by a bruin after he shot the animal in the flank with a muzzleloader. The bear struck the man on the head and killed him after biting him on the leg. The animal was later found dead a short distance from Devereaux's body.
  A wood sign was placed at his grave site and it reads: "Here lies F. Devereaux, killed by the ferocity of a famous bear, in whose memory this monument has been erected out of generosity of his grandson." A marble headstone was added years later. One wonders, the way this is written, whether the monument was for Devereaux or the bear.
  
  

• July 7, 1948: Three-year-old Carol Ann Romranky lived with her parents in the Upper Peninsula in a remote U.S. Forest Service fire-tower cabin near Brimley. The girl was playing outside when a 125-pound bear pulled her off the cabin porch. The animal dragged her into the woods, killed her by biting through her neck -- severing her spine -- and fed on the body. The bear was killed the same day as it returned to feed on the girl's corpse.

• June 5, 1960: Arthur DeGault, 71, of Engadine was attacked by a sow with three cubs. The man happened on the bears by accident, and when he tried to get away, she attacked and bit his thigh. He hit the sow with his fist, and it stood erect to swat and bite him as he tried to back away. He drew a knife and stabbed the bear several times. The bruin fled, and he walked a mile to his home. His injuries required 100 stitches.

• July, 1975: Paul Cameron, 16, of Dearborn, was camping in the Upper Peninsula's Porcupine Mountains. He awoke in the morning and heard a bear prowling around. The animal knocked his tent down and began dragging it away.
  Cameron rolled from the tent, lay motionless on the ground, and the bruin grabbed him by the throat with its teeth. He screamed, and the bear dropped him and ran away. A 125-pound sow with two cubs was later killed as they ransacked his abandoned tent.
  

• Autumn, 1976: Joe Newman, Sr. of Palmer was grouse hunting and nearly stepped on two sleeping bear cubs. They screamed, and Newman was charged by the sow. The bear was shot three times at point-blank range with a 20-gauge shotgun. Newman was not injured.

• June, 1978: Michael Patterson, 19, of Alma, was attacked by a boar and climbed a balsam tree to escape. His back and legs had been bitten and scratched by a bear, but he died of a ruptured lung and kidney. It's thought a bear pulled him from the tree, and the fall killed him.

• September 19, 1982: John Skosnik of Warren was bear hunting and apparently shot a sow that was accompanied by unseen cubs. The wounded sow charged the hunter and bit him numerous times before leaving.

Bears are very unpredictable. There have been several very close encounters between me and adult black bears but I have never had a major problem, and the same holds true for Richard Smith, but we both know the next bruin we meet may prove to be an exception to the rule.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors