This Is Just How Happy, Well-Fed Bears Act.

by Little Miss Attila on November 7, 2010

Best. Bear video. Ever.

I love bears. I mean, I’m not going to go live among them and forget that they are wild animals, but under ordinary circumstances this is just how they act.

One fall I was in Yosemite National Park, on the valley floor with my family, staying in two adjacent cabins. My mother was there, along with my aunt, and a female cousin, and her two kids. And along the main path–the thoroughfare between the rows of cabins–a bear came strolling along on all fours.

“Oh, my God; it’s a bear,” exclaimed the cousin, and she hustled her kids inside. Meanwhile my mother and my aunt tried desperately to get into their room, arguing over who was supposed to have the key.

I picked up a flashlight from the railing of the cabin’s mini-veranda and shined it in the bear’s eyes. And it ambled away from us then, just the way it had come.

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Moe Lane » #rsrh Dealing with a bear.
November 8, 2010 at 7:35 am

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Texan99 November 8, 2010 at 1:45 pm

Grim had this video up today. I loved it, but this was a black bear, and very young, or the guy could have been in real trouble. They say grizzlies can’t climb trees, so they’ll just shake you out of it.

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Little Miss Attila November 8, 2010 at 2:28 pm

Well, the strategies for coping with bears are not the same in grizzly or brown bear country as in those inhabited by black bears. Though certainly humans aren’t the first choice of grizzlies and browns either.

In the case of grizzlies and browns, it’s not just a question of them not being quite as passive and happy as black bears, but also their immense power and amazing mass. As with freeway driving vs. being on the road, the margin for error is a lot slimmer–though one can die on a road as much as on a freeway.

I think there are plenty of stand hunters in both types of bear country. But most of these guys have heavy-duty rifles at the ready, and are attuned to the difference between an ambling bear and one that is ready to charge.

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Texan99 November 9, 2010 at 9:59 am

I’m just glad no harm came to the bear — or the photographer. He seemed like a nice young bear, just checking things out and meaning no one any ill.

I’m in complete sympathy with that crazy guy who went and lived with the bears, even if he did get eaten. There are worse ways to go.

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