High Sierra Topix

This isn't really related to black bear attacks but the last couple of days had me wondering about the difference in behavior of black bears in northern California and southern Oregon. We car camped in both Mill Creek Campground, just south of Crescent City, CA, and Humbug Mountain State Park in Oregon, just 80 or so miles north. In the California campground we had to put all our food and smelly stuff in the provided bear box and we had dire warnings from the rangers about the danger of non-compliance. Now, just 80 miles to the north and the very next night, we were told that we didn't have to take any precautions with our food. Even the trash cans were not bear proof. It was very interesting to see the difference in bear precautions taken in the two state run campgrounds.

There are a number of subspecies of American Black Bear. My wife is from Vancouver Island, and that subspecies is known to be much more aggressive towards humans than the mainland Olympic Black Bear. From what I am told the Van Island BB's are quite a bit larger, too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_black_bear" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

How aggressive or smart a black bear is may depend on what we do to them. An aggressive or smart bear that is protected (think National Park) will be successful at obtaining food than will a more passive or less inquisitive bear. However, where people hunt, an aggressive or risk taking bear will probably wind up on somebody's dinner plate, his passive or fearful brethren will survive and pass on the genes. Thus we have the super smart bears of Yosemite, while bears up in the Marble Mountains, where the locals hunt them frequently, definitely make a point of being under people's radar, hiding in the bushes and not coming out. When I hiked the Marbles a few years ago, I would find that on occasion, I could smell what I was pretty sure was a bear very close in the brush. I was right on top of them, but they wouldn't budge. Smart bear. He/she knew I either couldn't smell them (most humans) or I wasn't stupid enough to risk a close encounter. Granted it was late in August and bow season was starting in a few days. Smart Bear