Bear Attack.

[Carl in Tampa]

A Seminole County woman was hospitalized Saturday night after being attacked by a 200-pound bear inside her garage, deputies say.

Seminole County woman injured in possible bear attack - Orlando Sentinel (http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-bear-attack-lake-mary-20140412,0,7893060.story)

This was in Lake Mary, east of us, North of Orlando.

Naturalist lectures I attended in Alaska indicated that grizzly bear attacks were generally because the bear was startled or felt threatened and the bear was not looking to eat the human, but black bear attacks in the lower 48 were usually because the bear intended to eat the victim.

That appears to be the case in Lake Mary. The bear was seen to have the victim's head in its mouth and was dragging her away. A head bite is typical of trying to bite the spine for a kill.

Everyone who has been reading the alligator threads can anticipate my attitude. You do not catch and release any wild animal that has attacked a human. You catch and kill it.

If there are multiple bears in the area and you don't know which one did it...............kill them all.

:police:

By the way....... bear meat makes excellent dried jerky.

:icon_hungry:

[buggyone]

The lady kept her garbage cans inside of the garage which was NOT attached to the house. The bears were rummaging through the garbage. She surprised them. She got attacked. It was not as though the bear sneaked into her garage and was laying in wait for a human to come by.

This kind of thing happens when animals get food from people and they associate people with food. Doesn't matter what kind of animal - it happens with alligators, bears, ducks at ponds, stingrays at Grand Cayman, sandhill cranes, etc. Of course, the alligators and bears have deadly consequences for both the human and the animal.

As far as eating wild pig and bear - make sure to cook it extremely well done. Lots of parasites in both.

[Bonanza]

The latest news is that four bears were killed: one of them shot and three of them euthanized (the news didn't say how this was accomplished).

Isn't it amazing that when a developer encroaches upon the territory of wildlife for a housing development, that this kind of thing happens???

I am very happy that despite this woman's injuries, she ultimately will be okay. But I question where the fault really lies; certainly not the fault of the bears.

A very sad situation from every aspect.

[Carl in Tampa]

No one laments the loss of wildlife habitat more than hunters do. A demonstration of this is the organization called Ducks Unlimited, founded in 1937 for the specific purpose of acquiring and protecting wetlands throughout North America to provide habitat for the annual migration of waterfowl. DU spends millions of dollars every year in wetlands restoration and conservation from Canada to Mexico. For years, until my work duties kept me from having time for hunting, I was a member of DU.

Similarly, revenue from state and federal hunting licenses, and taxes on firearms and ammunition sales is spent on wildlife areas. Without this money it would be difficult or impossible to continue to maintain many wildlife areas.

But, in spite of this, and because humans often want to take over areas that have been undeveloped for decades, it is commonplace for residential subdivisions to be built in areas occupied by wildlife. When this happens undesirable interaction between humans and dangerous wild animals sometimes occurs.

I personally reject the concept of "You can't blame the wild animal," just because the area was once their habitat. It is unfortunate, but necessary, that dangerous wild animals not be permitted to co-occupy living space with vulnerable humans.

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