Bear attacks

A bear attack is an attack by any mammal of the family Ursidae, on another animal, although it usually refers to bears attacking humans or domestic pets. Bear attacks are relatively rare, but frequent enough to be of concern for those who are in bear habitats. Bear attacks can be fatal and often hikers, hunters, fisherman, and others in bear country take precautions against bear attacks.

According to Taylor Y. Cardall and Peter Rosen, in their article "Grizzly Bear Attack" published in the The Journal of Emergency Medicine, there were 162 bear-inflicted injuries reported in the United States between 1900 and 1985. This constitutes approximately two reported bear-inflicted injuries per year. Likewise, Stephen Herrero, a Canadian biologist, reports that during the 1990s bears killed around three people a year in the U.S. and Canada, as compared to the 15 people killed every year by dogs. Multiple reports remark that one is more likely to be struck by lightning than to be attacked by a bear when outdoors; around 90 people are killed by lightning each year. However, with the increase in habitat destruction, interactions between bears and humans have increased and one would expect bear attacks to likewise be on the rise.

According to Wild Bears of the Worlds, by Paul Ward and Suzanne Kynaston, human contact with bears has existed since the time of the Neanderthals and the European cave bear around 200,000 to 75,000 years ago. There is some evidence of cave bear worship during these early years: between the years 1917 and 1922, Emil Bachler discovered a large stone chest filled with cave bear skulls in the Drachenloch Cave, one of the Wildkirchli; between 1916 and 1922, Konrad Hormann found narrow niches filled with five cave bear skulls. However, at these sites, there have been little evidence of any human presence, and so some scientists have come to regard such discoveries as the result of some natural cause.

Ward and Kynaston go on to report that Cro-Magnon humans, who first appeared nearly 35,000 years ago, show more obvious evidence of cave bear worship in the forms of paintings, sculptures, and engravings; however, there is still some doubt as to whether these works specifically depict the cave bear or the European brown bear.

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