Let's be careful out there--NJ bear edition

Not something I ever expected to read.

Pretty crazy, but they never should have split up.

I missed this post but saw the story this morning.

This is a strange one. The article I read said the four young men split up after realizing the bear was following them. That was exactly the wrong thing to do and I don't understand that at all.

Even the bear following them is pretty odd. Bears have been known to stalk lone hikers, but rarely a group of them.

Certainly sad to hear about it.

It is sad. As dedicated hikers we (a good proportion anyway) have pondered, researched and perhaps even experienced critter interactions and are more likely to do the right thing should we ever encounter it. But as we've all witnessed countless times, most folks just "out for a walk" haven't clue one, and bolting away from a big bear is just what a lot of them will do.

All that said it's still shocking that it happened, since it wasn't the classic "between mama bear and cub" scenario. Have read wildlife biologists describing "punk" bears--usually overly aggressive adolescent males--that act out of the norm. If I ever see a (black) bear following me, I'm going to assume it's not a typical bear and prepare for the unexpected. (Step 1: bring change of underwear.)

Will add I never hike in grizzly country, which is a whole other ballgame.

Wow, I heard of someone getting attacked by a griz and another black bear attack as well in the past couple days.

I think our bears should be pretty fat and happy here, it was a pretty good year for their standard fare of edibles so I shouldn't be on their menu.

Am a huge proponant of fat, indolent, unambitious bears. They're frankly, my favorite.

Cheers,

My understanding from reading several articles on this incident is that the group first ran when they saw the bear--always a mistake with any predator, which will naturally follow--and then split up--so two big mistakes here.

I read an article in Backpacker magazine that was written, or at least interviewed, by one of the renowned bear experts. He basically said that there weren't any (maybe he said not many) bear attacks on groups. The only incidents that come close were when groups split up and the bear is one on one with each person of the group.

Well there was that one group of teens (seven of them) in Alaska, but there may have been extenuating circumstances there. They think that:

1) It was raining, so the bear may not have heard them approaching.
2) The leader of the group came around a bend in a creek bed and surprised the bear before the others were visible.
3) The bear had a cub with her.