Bear in the San Jacintos

[Ulysses]

http://idyllwildtowncrier.com/2017/05/31/coexisting-with-a-bear/

[guest]

Wow, I just advised someone who will be camping in the San Jacinto not to be concerned about bear!
The one was seen at the Rite Aid in Banning, (obviously to pick up bear spray remedy!).
Not sure I'd want to see a bear eat a chicken,,,.

Interesting what Kevin Brennan said re. them not staying put, if relocated back to the San Berdo's.
Maybe a good idea to secure food if anyone is going camping in the forests in the near future.

ss

[Ulysses]

Apparently he's still around, and he may have a companion.

http://idyllwildtowncrier.com/2017/07/1 ... at-library

[Wildhorse]

We could call this bear couple Adam and Eve.

Stepping out the front door in Idyllwild carries more risk now.

I wonder if the bears are attracted to the nature center area by the campers' food in the connected campground.

[zippetydude]

I would find it fascinating and totally awesome if bears became a natural population of the San Jacintos. I would bet that they have done so off and on many times over the past few thousand years. Bears are one of the few apex predators that I don't really fear (except for mom and cub situations) so I find myself rooting for them and hoping that their interaction with humans does not end up in their demise. Mountain lions (I have encountered 6 in my wilderness trail runs over the past 20 years) still scare the heck out of me. None of them has ever done anything but flee, but I have read stories...so I kind of hope not to have an unfortunate encounter with a mountain lion. As far as bears, I have encountered them numerous times in the Sierra, in Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks, in the San Gorgonio Range, at Wildwood State Park in Yucaipa, and in my front yard several times. Each encounter was wonderful and non-threatening to either side, so I am truly a fan of bears.

z

[Ed]

I agree, bears are much less scary than mountain lions. Well, black bears, anyway. Though I have worried about being woken up in the middle of the night by a bear licking the cookie crumbs from my face.

[Wildhorse]

Like Z, I fear what people may do to the bears. We can help them survive by being cautious and respectful living with them.

My understanding is that grizzlies were natives of southern California until humans killed all of them before 1900. Some black bears may have migrated here from mountains farther north, but they were supplemented in a big way by a relocation created by USFW around 1930.

The socal ecosystem is quite unnatural now. Human selection has dwarfed natural selection.

Bears are great creatures, powerful and yet peaceful. I wear a ring graced by a heartlime bear to remind me of what matters in life. My own mother had the heart and courage of a bear. We would do well to emulate bears.

[Ed]

I believe the relocation was of problem bears from the national parks up north. So Southern California bears may not have the greatest gene pool, from our point of view. Though they seem relatively well-behaved, who can blame them for being fond of our food and swimming pools.

[Wildhorse]

Ed, I think you are right about what likely happened. The most aggressive bears were shot. The friendliest, most entertaining bears were selected to keep in the parks for the amusement of park visitors, and the other bears were exiled. This is a classic example of human selection and it has surely had genetic consequences.

Darwin wrote about how human selection (of the traits of species) is conducted for our own good, while nature selects for the good of each specie that it tends. He warned of the awful consequences of taking over for nature. That was in 1859. We have now seen the result of ignoring that part of his words. For anyone unfamiliar with Bill McKibben's work, it is this that he has called the "end of nature."

We have made a mess of things for the bears (and other species selected by nature) and for ourselves.

If Darwin is also right about what eventually happens to a specie like ours, then we are doomed, even if life itself survives.

The bears are all innocent.

[Ellen]

"Bears are great creatures, powerful and yet peaceful. I wear a ring graced by a heartline bear to remind me of what matters in life. My own mother had the heart and courage of a bear. We would do well to emulate bears."

Thank you Wildhorse. I was watching the movie "Avatar" as I read the posts in this thread and my eyes filled with tears.

I feel the same way about gray wolves.