Dr. Mercola January 06 2009 47,912 views
I have a cabin in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, CA. My nephews left my home made Beer and THEIR crappy Soda in the outside fridge for the next visit, not thinking of bears paying a visit. When I went up to the cabin the next weekend, the bears drank all my beer and left their crappy soda. Yep, even bears are smart enough to know that good home made beer is better for them than phosphate filled sodas!
Then they crapped all over my deck to leave me a 'souvenir'. :)
I remember the video of the fellow being chased around a truck by a polar bear. He eventually escaped his ursine tormentor by jumping into another, nearby truck, which was mercifully unlocked. I hope that man's injuries were not too serious.
There is no limit to human stupidity.
My husband and I were victims of a bear assault similar to the one in the second video, while camping on Michigan's Upper Peninsula. We foolishly left a large cooler full of food on a picnic table while we slept in our tent nearby. We were awakened after dark by odd noises. Flashlight beam revealed a sow bear and her two cubs slashing our cooler to ribbons. They were between us and our vehicle. Evidently they filled up on our eggs, bacon, sausage, bread etc. because, although they came sniffing around the tent where we huddled (we could hear them!) they didn't bother us.
I hope campers and hikers learned something from that video. These are not teddy bears!
Bears are NOT vicious animals, but they are very, very smart, and if they can smell easy food, they will get it, come hell or high water. If you get in the way or they bear gets frustrated with amount/container, that is NOT their fault. Their just being bears.
Their intelligence is often their undoing, because once they discover easy food from humans they learn to seek it out and often must be destroyed for that habituation.
It is humans encroaching on bear territory with improper wilderness practices that causes the problems. Don't put the blame on "vicious animals", because it doesn't belong there.