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Been there, done this. Kick a 'normal' black bear on its butt and it will run, mother with cubs or not.

You will never run into a wild bear, they have instincts and senses that keep them far away from you. The bears you will run into are the ones that are eating garbage or being fed. They will not be afraid of you unless you give them cause, in which case they will be afraid.

The best way to get hurt in the woods is to act like a wuss.

There is always the possibility that you will run into a black bear that is psychotic, but then it doesn't matter what you do. If it's bigger than you, and you don't have a gun, you may be toast, and a statistical anomaly.

The same theory goes for loose dogs, except that a much higher percentage of dogs are wacko.

They will not be afraid of you unless you give them cause, in which case they will be afraid

With all due respect, I must disagree with you. I'll attempt to explain why: When talking specifically about the issue as it refers to the bear population of NJ, there has been no reason for bear to fear man since 1973 when the black bear hunting season was abolished by pressure from the Sierra Club and regional "environmental conservation" groups.

The bears that had a healthy fear of humans have been dead for years. The current generations (and future) presenting as aggressive and opportunistic have zero fear of man due to regulatory factors that prevent all acts of hostility towards bears beyond banging pots and barking dogs. It is this factor alone that makes them dangerous. Humans are not feared and are quickly becoming a viable food source.

The first hunt for NJ since 1973 netted 328 bear from my immediate area and it's highly probable that those that were caught out-of-den during the harvest were the top tier of problematic bears.

Hunters always have been and continue to be, the original "conservationists".

"You will never run into a wild bear, they have instincts and senses that keep them far away from you. The bears you will run into are the ones that are eating garbage or being fed. They will not be afraid of you unless you give them cause, in which case they will be afraid."

Actually I have run into both types. Bears have no natural enemies except man, and if they are not hunted, then not even man. They don't necessarily run when approached, in fact a large male will often ignore you.

Mothers with cubs will run more often, but if you surprise one, easy to do since they are NOT on the lookout for predators, she will not back down if you seem aggressive. I live out west so perhaps the bears I see are larger than eastern bears. Here bears wander around like they own the place.