A black bear......... yes, a black bear those big goofy things I usually scream at or clap my hands and they run off..... climbed my tree almost completely up to my treestand. I couldnt tell if it was rabid or what but I've never been that scared in my life. When it first came up I just hollered at it and it paused then came on up anyway. I pulled out my pistol and shot up into the air and it didnt phase him at all. He eventually got right under my stand off to the left side and I was afraid it was coming on up with me.
J, would you happen to know if the berry or mast crops failed in that area this year?
Basically would a Bear be deprived of it's normal / natural food source in that area??
I have heard of behavior quite similar to what you described in the above quote happening before. In fact, I saw a video taken by a Michigander up in Canada dealing with a Bear that behaved in a somewhat similar fashion, although in the case of the Michigan man the "attack", which took place on the ground in very thick timber, ended after he backed down into a nearby Lake........
Here's the experts theory behind why a Black Bear acts the way in which you described, which they, the experts, describe as a "test stalk / attack."
Black Bears have been known to use people as a source of food if their natural supply isn't available, when they do they are usually hunted down and killed, so, because of this the trait of "people as food" isn't passed down from one generation to the next. When a Black Bear gets to the point that they have to eat something else, in this case us, they aren't sure if we are food or not, or aren't sure they can easily take us down. These "test stalks / attacks" are the Bear's way of testing us to see how we will react and are usually not the typical charge, or stalk and ambush they would normally use when after prey they are familiar with.
These "tests" are usually slow & methodical with the Bear closing the distance over time. In the case of the Michigan man he would yell at the Bear, which would then stop, look at him, sniff the air, then start to slowly move closer. As I mentioned that "attack" took place on the ground in woods so thick that the Bear was climbing over down tree limbs etc., which didn't help the guy backing away any I can tell you that. The guy who filmed this behavior probably saved his life because he kept doing all the right things, he stayed as face to face with the Bear as he could, made a lot of noise and most important, didn't try to run, which could have provoked a full out attack.
When a Bear starts acting like this around people, for whatever reason, there is a good chance someone is eventually going to get hurt. Picture what might happen if someone, who is unarmed, took a child, or grandchild out for a walk in the woods and came across such a Bear, one who is obviously unafraid of humans, once again, for whatever reason.
In one "Killer Bear" case where humans were used as a source of food the Black Bear was hunted down and killed and it was found to have some Porqupine Quills imbedded in the roof of it's mouth. Some of these Quills had worked their way up into the Bear's brain so not only couldn't it feed properly, it was probably a little angry at the world in general. You just never know..........
I should probably buy a bigger gun.
