LARGE ANIMAL ATTACKS - Medicine for Mountaineering and Other Wilderness Activities - page 458

elevenbyblackbears.(Toputthesedatainperspective,between1979and1998dogskilled
an average of twenty-two humans each year in the United States.)
Black Bears
Black bears, which have many color variations including brown and honey, are numer-
ous in the forested areas of the United States. They have no natural enemies and have be-
come a nuisance for campers in a number of national parks.
Because these animals have evolved in forested areas, they have learned to hide or
climb trees when threatened. Therefore, truly wild bears infrequently attack humans. In
contrast tobrownbears, black bear sowswith cubsrarely behave aggressively.Black bears
that have a sudden encounter with humans almost never attack. Aggressive behavior by
humans—shouting, waving arms, walking toward the bear, and making threatening ges-
tures—almost always frightens away black bears. Whether greater precautions are needed
deserves consideration.
Bears that have become habituated to humans do occasionally attack them, particularly
individuals who approach too closely—trying to feed them or take pictures. Herrero found
more than five hundred incidents in which black bears attacked humans between 1960 and
1980. Of the injuries produced by such attacks, 90 percent were minor, but major injuries
were inflicted in thirty-five attacks.
A number of humans have been killed. Herrero was able to find reliable accounts of
twenty-three humans killed by black bears between 1900 and 1980. According to the
bear statistics compiled by the Canadian Conservation Office Service, between 1978 and
1996 ten people were killed by black bears and seventy-eight people were injured in Brit-
ish Columbia. In recent years the number of attacks appears to have increased. In early
September of 2005 a thirty-one-year-old female physician was killed by a black bear in
Missinaibi Lake Provincial Park in Ontario. One week later a sixty-nine-yearold-man was
killed while picking plums in Selkirk, Manitoba, a village north of Winnipeg. This was the
third time a black bear had killed a human in the province of Manitoba.
Herrero concluded that 90 percent of lethal black bear attacks have been predatory. Fur-
thermore, 90 percent of such predatory attacks have been made by truly wild bears that
were not habituated to humans. Only one of the predatory attacks occurred in a national
park where most food conditioning and habituation occur. Most of the predatory attacks
have been made during daylight in contrast to the night hours during which most predatory
brown bear attacks occur. Most attacks appear to be associated with a failure of the wild
berry crop, a vital source of food for black bears.
Control of black bears in national parks has been greatly improved by making human
food and garbage inaccessible.
Brown Bears