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[pct-l] Scary bear story & not hanging food



The result in this reported incident may have ended well, or at least less
bad, but I believe chasing a bear carrying food is an error in judgment.  If
a bear is sniffing around looking for food, aggressive behavior by humans in
possession of that food is an effective deterrent, and is usually
successful.  If the bear does not get that food they will find some other.
However, once the bear gains possession of the food, the story is quite a
different.  Bears will then defend what instantly has become theirs and the
result could be very serious or even tragic.  Several days of
belt-tightening should be viewed as a cheap date.

Steel-Eye


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Slyatpct@aol.com>
To: <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2004 6:31 PM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Scary bear story & not hanging food


> In a message dated 7/20/2004 4:33:48 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> Bighummel@aol.com writes:
>
> > This is the exact thing that Tom used to say would lead to increased
bear
> > incidents of crashing tents and attacking sleeping hikers in the night.
> >
>
> Hold on Greg, no one's tent was crashed and no hikers were attacked
either.
>
> In this case, the bears may have been negatively re-enforced NOT to mess
with
> a thru-hikers food.   The fact that they didn't get any food either, is a
big
> plus.
>
> I think the girls handled the experience well.
>
> Sly
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