nedsn3 Wrote:
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> Animals with young can be dangerous. Euthanizing
> those animals was a waste- she was only doing what
> nature directed. The woman should have been more
> careful.
Sorry, nedsn3, some bears have to be eliminated if the populations of humans and bears are to live in some kind of peace. It is not merely chance encounters which occur; just like with humans, some individuals develop a taste for certain situations and diets, and try as you might you cannot always avoid meeting them.
I cannot speak to Colorado or this incident or the behavior of the humans/bears, but in the areas I have lived and live in farther west, the bears are also increasing in population, expanding their territories and showing up in places they have not been within the memory of several generations. Changes in hunting regulations have made the hunting of bears (and mountain lions) more difficult if not impossible for those so inclined with the unfortunate side effect that the animal predators do not recognize the humans as fellow predators and to be feared/avoided. Nor do they read and follow human regulations, so thinking that "if the people would just stay out of bear territory, everything would be fine" is not ultimately an answer.
To Greg's point about eastern coyotes, as a westerner I watched the coyotes increase their range into Western Oregon where there were none when I grew up, and in Washington I have lived with a local pack harvesting all the domestic cats and small dogs (sometimes singing along with the radio outside my window). I lived for a time in upstate New York and was astonished at the size and behavior of the eastern variety (with 27% wolf DNA according to New York's Department of Environmental Conservation). The locals were also seeing black bears in places not seen in memory (and the NYDEC issuing tags for the hunting and control). The NYDEC will deny there are mountain lions to your queries, but trail cam photos are not easy to fake. And the locals (and I) know the difference between mountain lion and bobcat tracks.
So I do not speak from a theoretical perspective but from personal observation and experience. There are living members of all these predator species within shouting distance as I type, and if I meet one on the way to the chickens tonight it will not be the first time. I live in "settled" country, by the way, where humans have lived for quite some time. But the predators don't seem to concede any territory as "human".
If you truly believe the "doing what nature directed" paradigm, what is not predator is prey. It is equally valid by that paradigm to say that humans are dangerous, the bears should have been more careful, and the wildlife control officers are "only doing what nature directed". Of course that paradigm can also lead you to conclude that the bears are euthanizing the humans so everything is fine but I'm not sure we can live with that. In the end the nature paradigm doesn't give you an ideal world where sides recognize "oughts" beyond reproduction and survival.
Sadly, Timothy
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/2021 03:35PM by heatermason.
