“A sweeping study chronicling more than a century’s worth of deadly encounters with black bears in Canada and the United States is …dispelling the widely held notion that a sow protecting her cubs is the prime danger.
… the vast majority of the confrontations weren’t the result of chance meetings in the woods, but the outcome of predatory behaviour, nearly always by lone male black bears. Surprisingly, only 8 per cent of the deadly attacks were attributed to mother bears.
Even the world’s foremost bear-attack expert, study leader Stephen Herrero, was taken aback by this finding…” (via The Globe and Mail)
I was not aware that black bears exhibit predatory behavior toward humans. I just always assumed that they were much too wild and frightened of human intrusions to attack us unless cornered.
When it happens though, I understand that it’s mostly by males, that fits the pattern for all the animal world.
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