There has been some understandable anxiety regarding the unusual bear attacks that killed two campers in Arkansas recently. Since we birders spend time in these forests, it is helpful to put this in perspective. I am forwarding our own seasoned wildlife biologist Jerry Davis's recent email on this topic. ------------------Bear Fatalities In Arkansas
I want to put the 2 bear fatalities in Arkansas in perspective. In North America there have been 180 Bear caused Human fatalities since 1784, 66 by black bear and 82 by Brown bears.
Each year there are 50 people that die from dog attacks in the US, and in 2023 there were 96 fatalities. In a 10-year period between 2011 and 2021 there were 468 people were killed by dogs.
There is hysteria on the social media wanting to know why we have bears in Arkansas at all. At one time bears were eliminated so why were they reintroduced? Bears being in Arkansas is as valid as people being here and they were here first. Arkansas used to be called the Bear State before they were eliminated. Bears were killed for the oil and even hunted in the dens in winter to kill the adults and cubs. Settlers could get $30 per gallon for bear grease and that was when a dollar was worth something and for some, the only cash crop. Bear grease, which did not get rancid like hog lard, was even used in restaurants as far away as New York. Places were named in Arkansas like Oil Trough and Bear. In my paper “Cooking With Bear Grease” Jerry Wayne Davis December 23, 2019, I explain the phrase I coined in 1972 - "Cooking With Bear Grease". Bear grease was the best and the Cadillac of cooking oil for our ancestors. The grease did not go bad and or get rancid like pork grease and the Arkansas bears were hunted to extirpation.
Bears belong here and are going to stay here and people need to adapt to living with bears which are not as great a threat as being killed by dogs.
Jerry Davis
