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“a bear had killed Markel’s dog as the relative had watched”. Watching the bear kill the dog? How about doing something? I would not be in an area unarmed with bears, pythons, gators, and everything else that wants to eat me. I’d have a gun capable of taking out the worst. Apparently the bear got away, no telling if it was rabid or not. Rare for a bear to attack unless you get too close to its cubs or it’s starving or rabid. I would think there is plenty of food for a bear in the everglades.

Rare for a bear to attack unless you get too close to its cubs or it’s starving or rabid.

Most black bear attacks are predatory attacks. This attack was clearly predatory. The bear dragged the man off into the woods and covered the body with dirt and leaves. This is common when bears want to cache large prey for later meals.

While attacks by female black bears with cubs happen, they are relatively rare. Most female black bears will abandon cubs instead of attacking. Rabid bears are a concern, of course.

As populations of black bears have increased nationwide, so have attacks by black bears. Grizzly bears are far more aggressive. Grizzly bears in the lower 48 states attack people about 200-300 times as often per bear compared to black bears. In the lower 48, there about about 200-300 times as many black bears as grizzly bears.

Kill a bear, go to jail.

Or at least Court and a huge fine.

Circumstances be damned