Attitude, nuisance bears, and a final note on hunting
Attitude, nuisance bears, and a final note on hunting
Update March 8, 2010 – 8:51 PM CST
Yesterday, we discussed how bear management policies and bear population levels depend upon public attitude.
As a follow-up, attitudes also determine whether people consider bears nuisances or not, as you can see by reading ‘What is a nuisance black bear?’ Attitude depends upon knowledge, which is why the North American Bear Center focuses on education.
Today was another warm day close to 50F. Charlotte the spider was active in the Lilypad, and moths are flying against the window as I write this. Lily almost had us headed over there when she investigated the camera and microphone (“No, No!”).
Hope is sounding ever bigger and is making sounds we never heard before. The people recording minute by minute behaviors won’t know how to classify some of these sounds, and we realize that. We’d say to document periods of silence and periods of nursing and do the best you can in classifying sounds and describing activities. We’ll go back to the archives to check sounds you highlight with times in your comments. We’re so grateful for the efforts you all are making. It would be too much for our small team to do such a thorough job otherwise.
Thank you all for your comments about last night’s update on Bear Management. However, I see some have pressed the issue further, wanting to know if I ever hunted bears or shot at one, as if this is a litmus test of sorts.
The all or nothing approach many people apply to the hunting issue is interesting. If a person disagrees with an aspect of hunting, such as spring hunts that orphan cubs or practices that cause high wounding loss, many hunters dismiss the person as an anti-hunter. If a person ever hunted bears or shot at one, many anti-hunters will similarly dismiss him.
At the risk of alienating many, I will state for the record that as a teenager and young adult my shotgun was part of me. I hunted deer and small game every moment I could. It was an important time of discovering the ways of these animals and learning to feel comfortable roaming deep into the forest. It was a good feeling to escape into the forest, have a goal, learn a skill, feel successful in the hunt, and share meat with friends and family. It was a way of bonding with hunting buddies or feeling the thrill of discovering things in solitude. I joined in several hound hunts in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula but didn’t carry a gun, which is immaterial because all the bears escaped.
The trouble with hunting, it was only in the fall. I wanted to be out in all seasons. I turned to wildlife photography and found greater pleasure in capturing images of live animals than in holding dead ones. Eventually, I got into wildlife research and found greater pleasure in learning how animals live than in killing them.
I’ve never shot at a bear and now can’t imagine doing it.
From reading hunting magazines, I believed bears were ferocious and would charge unprovoked like short-tempered, oversized guard dogs. I wondered if I had the nerve to kill a charging bear before it got me. What I’ve learned from real bears is that shooting these timid animals whose lives are ruled by fear and food is no more of a challenge than shooting anything else. From my experience, they basically want nothing more than to safely forage and live their lives.
Thank you again for your contributions and supporting our educational efforts.
—Lynn Rogers, Biologist, North American Bear Center