Posted on 06/01/2022 5:01:49 AM PDT by marktwain
True dat.
The only thing that are more of a pest around here are Whitetale deer, turkeys and Canadian Geese
That reminds me. I need to buy nets for my blueberry bushes.
Last year the turkeys ate all the berries before they ever turned blue.
But it only blows the lungs out of humans.
There is sense in what you say, if people are going out of their way to feed bears.
It is not the responsibility of people to alter their normal behavior for the benefit of bears.
The killing of nuisance bears has almost no effect on bear populations. It simply teaches bears not to habituate to humans, and to respect humans as dangerous.
Bears are opportunistic ominivores. Give them an inch, they will take a mile.
We are the dominant species on the planet. Bears need to learn and respect that position.
You are expecting bears to stop being bears. The only way to make that happen is to kill every last one. I would like to think that isn’t what you want.
IF the killing of nuisance bears has no material effect on populations (your assumption, not mine), it’s because most people who live in bear country have too much sense to contribute to the problem by conducting themselves as if they live in Westchester County. If everybody decides it’s OK to leave out food that bears will come looking for, then yes it will have a devastating effect on bear populations. I happen to believe that bears have their part to play in nature, and should be allowed to do so. If we are going to pave every last acre in America, you will not like the result.
No, you are mistaken. Black bears learn quickly to avoid humans.
Grizzly bears are harder to condition, but they learn.
You do not have to kill every bear, far from it. You only need to kill "bold" bears.
Natural selection works.
It is only when we stopped people from killing bears which were doing damage, that the problem bear population exploded.
Selected feeding in problem locations, on specific, targeted areas, can reduce damage caused by bears.
A good read is Bears and Flowers, by Ralph Flowers.
I have had a couple of close (black) bear encounters. My wife’s cousin has them in his yard almost every day of the year. We both know that even if you don’t succeed in driving them off, you must always, ALWAYS deny them food, because that’s when the real trouble starts. ISTM that selected feeding of bears, even in backcountry locations will not draw bears away from human habitations. It will only cause overpopulation, making it more likely that excess bears, in numbers higher than nature can sustain, will migrate to populated areas and become a nuisance. A fed bear is a dead bear.
I ran into two bears on Saturday and simply yelled and they ran up a tree
It isn't designed to do that. It is a program designed to prevent damage to trees.
I agree.
It isn't a problem.
The number of problem bears, compared to the entire bear population, is very small.
If the bear population is in a heavily populated human area, the number of problem bears could be a significant percentage of the bear population.
Law of unintended consequences: it will produce excess bears.
Am I the only one surprised that that didn't work?
It isn’t a problem if you think there’s no problem that can’t be fixed with a gun.
When it doesn't work, it is much more likely to make the news.
Bears always produce excess bears. They cannot avoid it.
Boar bears usually kill about 25% of the cubs in any given year. That is about 8% of the bear population.
Even with that, the bear population expands every year, pushing bears into populated areas.
The only way to keep bear populations in checks is for humans to restrain the population growth by harvesting them; or by killing them without harvesting them.
I prefer harvesting to keep the population in check.
Allowing people to kill nuisance bears means problem bears are the most likely to get harvested first.
Violence is a common way of fixing problems. It has traditionally worked very well.
There are some problems which cannot be fixed without violence.
Violence is neutral, like gravity.
There was a Good reason:
.... Froggy went a-courtin’ and he did ride, M-hm, M-hm.
Froggy went a-courtin’ and he did ride,
Sword and pistol by his side, M-hm, M-hm.
All I read was PedoJoe saying a 9mm would “blow your lungs out of your body”."
Yes.
I was listening to them (Glenn and I think Stu) banter back and forth about the "blowing the lungs out of your body" statement. It had to be before 6/1/22 as I was off the Internet till last Sunday on 8/28/22. It was hilarious.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.