<p>“we have been going up there since 1991 and never seen a single bear!”</p>
<p>Put a picnic basket in a conspicuous place.</p>
<p>Bears are all over mountains near and in Yosemite. Mostly looking for food scraps at the camp I stay at some summers. We all sleep in tents and there are bears roaming around at night.</p>
<p>Many people these days are not used to living around animals, and don’t understand that animals are, well, animals. I heard on the news that a guy recently got into trouble because he gave his young son a cracker or something, and told him to hold it out to a black bear in the woods so he could get a good picture. He ended up getting his son attacked by the black bear. Really, mister? Can you possibly be that stupid?</p>
<p>Remember the CT woman whose chimp attacked the friend? Or the movie about the real-life Grizzly Man, who anthropomorphized the grizzlies and was probably surprised when his “buddy” Mr. Chocolate killed him.</p>
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<p>Hey, come on now…spoiler alert.</p>
<p>I work as a park ranger on the Tongass National Forest in Juneau, Alaska - an area highly frequented by black bears, particularly during the tourist season. I have been within 10-15 feet of bears dozens of times, monitoring as hundreds of visitors get an up-close experience with bears in their natural habitat.</p>
<p>There are two situations in which the vast majority of bear attacks on humans occur: food and mothers with cubs. Both are preventable to various degrees, the first particularly so. </p>
<p>Bears that haven’t become habituated to human food don’t tend to think of us as a potential source of tasty snacks stored in those easy-open pouches we call backpacks (or ice chests, or car trunks.) Keeping bears from getting access to our food allows them to remain attached to their natural food sources.</p>
<p>Mothers instinctively defend their cubs against threats - and if you inadvertently frighten such a family group, you could be in trouble. Wearing bear bells, talking and traveling in groups all helps to keep this from happening. I don’t believe there’s ever been a documented bear attack on any grouping of more than three humans - even sows will consider those unhealthy odds and retreat.</p>
<p>except, of course, for the attack on the seven teens in Alaska this summer:</p>
<p>[Grizzly</a> bear attacks seven teens in Alaska - Yahoo! News](<a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/grizzly-bear-attacks-seven-teens-alaska-062207870.html]Grizzly”>http://news.yahoo.com/grizzly-bear-attacks-seven-teens-alaska-062207870.html)</p>
<p>Gee, thanks for the timely thread. We are going to Yellowstone next week. </p>
<p>Let me tell you, I only want to see bears if we are inside a car! We are planning to hike a lot, and I plan to AVOID any area that is a “good” place to see bears.</p>