Lone black bears pose deadlier risk: study

Hikers are often taught to be wary of the mother bear protecting her cubs, but new research shows that lone male black bears are more dangerous than their female counterparts, which is quite surprising. Most of the fatal black bears attacks in North America in the last 110 years were the result of male bears targeting humans as food, according to an article published Wednesday in the Journal of Wildlife Management by University of Calgary professor Stephen Herrero. Researchers looked at all the black bear deaths in North America between 1900 and 2009, excluding those caused by bears kept in captivity. The study found that 63 people were killed in 59 incidents. Of those, 88 per cent involved a bear "exhibiting predatory behaviour" and 92 per cent of the bears were male. It is truly unfortunate. What is important that the research can be used to learn how to protect and prevent the events from occurring. While the rise in bear attacks has been correlated to the rise in the human population, fatal bear attacks are more common in Canada and Alaska, likely because bears are living in less productive food habitat with periodic food stress, Herrero said. This relations to global warming and the climate change in which many bears have to change there living habits.

My Opinion :

I think that this research study is very important, especially for the avid hikers. Bears in general are very dangerous and are obviously not meant to interact with humans, which will lead to horrifying results. What is most important that through this study the researchers are able to identify ways in which to prevent and protect ourselves from interactions with Bears. I find the statistics odd due to the fact that most incidents are involved with males, where I would predict that mothers would be protecting their cubs. I think this is because the bears have been forced to change there living habits and I believe more and more of these events will continue to occur. Overall I agree with the study and I think this information is very good in relation to hikers and people in general, hopefully this will raise awareness for those who were unaware.