----- Original Message -----
From: "Gregg" <giverson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, April 06, 2000 5:22 AM
Subject: [OM] Re: OT Fwd: [Man vs. Bear]
> Hi Per,
>
> As I recall, there was some discussion when I lived in Wyoming about 12
> years ago about bears actually stalking humans as a slow, dumb, and quite
> tasty food source. It wasn't just those who bumbled into a bear, or came
> between the female and her cub that were suffering.
>
> BTW, how can you tell the difference between a black bear and a grizzly
> bear? The black bear comes up the tree after you, the grizzly pushes the
> tree over!
>
> Gregg
Hi Gregg,
Think I'd prefer the first alternative. Then at least I'd stand the chance that
the tree is to weak for the bear to climb all the way up! ;-)
I've recently actually seen pictures of such a bear incident at a wolf
conference
I visited in late march.
Contrary to what many people seem to believe also adult bears are capable of
climbing up a tree (don't know about grizzly's though...). A young woman,
belonging to a team of wildlife researchers studying bear behaviour in the north
of Sweden, had followed a female bear with her cub for a few days. This was in
march and the bears had just woke up from their hibernation.
It was early in the morning and she was in the vicinity of the two bears (but
not
close enough to actually see them). Suddenly she hear an incredible roar, a roar
the likes of which she'd never heard before! She described it as if her "blood
froze to ice". In spite of the fear she felt she cautiously continued towards
where she knew the two bears were. Soon she saw who had caused the big roar. Up
in
a big tree sat the little cub, and a few meters below in the tree a large male
bear was trying to get at him. Fortunately for the little bear he had climbed
the
right tree, as it seemed to be too weak in the top to carry the weight of the
heavy male. The female bear at the ground could do nothing to help her little
cub.
In his frustration the male soon climbed all the trees around where the cub was,
finishing them off one after another by breaking them in the middle. Soon the
place looked as if a wooden industry processor machine had been there! (the
researchers showed pictures of the scene taken by the young women with a tele
lens)
Well, fortunately there was a happy ending. The male eventually realized after
some hours that there was no way he could get to the cub and walked way. The
little bear cub sat in the tree for 36 hours before he/she dared to climb down
to
the mother. Unfortunately though I don't think every bear story of this kind
has a
happy ending...
Per Nordenberg
Zoo keeper at Kolmården
--
To look into the eyes of the wolf is to look into ones' soul.
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