[pct-l] Rabid t.Rex's

[Melissa Rexilius]

Steel-Eye, have no fear! I would never pursue you for your pack and food. although I have been known to be rabid...-t.Rex

Good morning, all,We each get to choose what we fear so my fear-pick is being pursued by arabid *Tyrannosaurus rex. *Compared to that grim possibility everythingelse – particularly the wanderings of our timid black bears – is reduced toinsignificance.The PCT transits the home range of many thousands of black bears. Very fewof them are ever observed, but be assured that they are probably aware ofyou. Think about all those thousands of bears and the many thousands ofshort, medium, and long distance hikers on the trail vs. the number ofreliable reports of attack resulting from bear aggression. Doom-sayers canpossibly dredge up reports of bear attack – some possibly from tabloids orshock TV – but I believe the probability is extremely low. One report Iremember was when a park bear carried off a careless hiker’s food pack. Thehiker chased the retreating bear to retrieve the food when the bear turnedaround and swatted her in defense. A comment about bear psychology: If ahuman has possession of food the bear will respect that and not aggressivelytry to get it. However, once the bear gets its paws on the food – literallyand figuratively – it will actively defend what is then “its food”. That’swhy the hiker got swatted.My personal opinion is based upon the experience of having slept out underthe stars, mostly alone, in the territory of both wild and park bears,regularly since the mid-1950’s, without once having seen even mildaggression from *Ursus americanus*. I take appropriate measures to securemy food: Sleeping with it in wild bear territory and using a ‘can whererequired in park bear territory.Wild bears won’t come near a hiker or a hiker’s camp. Park bears mayapproach camp, but bears don’t want hikers; bears want hiker’s food. Idon’t really care if a bear wanders through camp on its nightly business; Iam very unlikely to even awake.The old, tried-and-true comment that, “A fed bear is a dead bear” grosslyunderstates the situation. Half – and probably more – of the problem bearsare females with cubs, and those cubs quickly learn bad habits. If theoriginal habituated bear is killed, likely her cubs will eventually have tobe killed as well. If it takes over two years to find them, then the thirdgeneration must also go, *ad nauseam*.Steel-EyeHiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eyehttp://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09