[at-l] Sins

[Mara Factor]

This goes along with the results of the study that was published recently.
 Jim posted the link to the article in May

"...sweeping study... dispelling the widely held notion that a sow
protecting her cubs is the prime danger." and "only 8 per cent of the deadly
attacks were attributed to mother bears."

See
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/science/a-few-surprises-in-decades-long-black-bear-study/article2017628/

Still, 8 percent is not zero so I'm really glad Pilot is OK.

Going through the Shenandoah a few years ago, I saw 11 bears.  Three were
sows with cubs.  One even had triplets.  In all three cases, they moved away
rather than posture or charge.

I did corner a lone bear at one point, coming within about 5 feet of it.  It
was completely inadvertent on my part and once the "stump" I was about to
pass moved an ear, I stopped walking, started talking, and backed up.  As
soon as I took a couple of steps back, the bear ran across the path and
disappeared.  It was only when I started moving ahead that I realized it had
been cornered.  I feel that bear would have been well within its rights to
have taken a swipe at me but I'm really glad it didn't.

Mara
Stitches, AT99

Visit my Travels and Trails web site at:
http://friends.backcountry.net/m_factor


On Sun, Sep 18, 2011 at 9:19 AM, Felix J <AThiker at smithville.net> wrote:

> ...
>
> Pilot got a little too close to a bear and her cubs the
> other day. The momma lurched at her and growled....coming
> about 'two feet from me!!'.
> ...
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://patsy.hack.net/pipermail/at-l/attachments/20110918/242eb545/attachment.html