An 8-year old boy hiking with his father in the Great Smokies was attacked by an 86 pound black bear. There was no evidence the boy taunted or threatened the bear, but the bear tossed him around a bit, giving the boy some cuts, bruises and a tremendous scare.
The boy's father chased the bear off by pelting it with rocks and sticks.
All very unfortunate, but luckily, the child is largely unharmed. And he has a great story to tell.
Here's the problem: "Park rangers caught a young bear soon afterward in the same area and killed it when it charged them. Smokies spokeswoman Nancy Gray said rangers were sure it was the same bear."
Why was the bear killed? "Park officials said the attack along the popular Rainbow Falls trail was unprovoked. In most cases, bears attack people while trying to poach their food, but none was present during the attack Monday. John Pala said their clothes might have smelled like fried chicken from a meal an hour earlier."
Doesn't the bear have as much right to those woods as the people do? From our perspective it may appear to be unprovoked, but from the bear's perspective? We are encroaching on his territory.
Why can't human beings just say, "Wow, that's scary. I better look out for bears in the Smokies." No kidding.
Why is the answer that we have to destroy the animal, who was doing what only came naturally to it? Neither the boy nor the father were seriously harmed.
Is it because we have to punish the bear for daring to try and harm a person, particularly a child? Or is it because we want to establish our dominion over the Smokey Mountains, ensuring that others can traipse around in the woods without fearing anything from wildlife?
I think it's both. People are happy to walk in the woods where squirrels scramble around, birds chirp and deer panic at the crack of a twig. God forbid they see real honest to goodness wild animals in the woods. That's what zoos are for, right?
Let's not forget that bears don't eat people. While Black Bears are technically carnivores, their subsistence is largely plant based: twigs, buds, leaves, nuts, fruit, berries and honey; supplemented by insects, fish and small vertebrates. Bears attack people because they have become familiar with people, and the food they carry around. That seems as much our fault as the bears'.
By the way, this must have been a relatively young, or starving bear, because an 86 pound Black Bear is not very big at all. According to the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mammals, Black Bears average between 203-587 pounds. In fact, he probably weighed little more than the 8 year old boy he attacked.
