On Tue, Oct 7, 2025 at 7:21 PM Brian Carlson <brianrcarlson...>
wrote:
> Thanks for sharing that. I have had many encounters with Black Bears when
> in lived in Washington State. They are to be respected for sure but they
> seemed to be more afraid of me than me of them. These recent bear attacks
> are quite surprising to me based on my experience.
>
> Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
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> *From:* The Birds of Arkansas Discussion List <ARBIRD-L...>
> on behalf of Ragupathy Kannan <
> <0000013b0ad14faf-dmarc-request...>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, October 7, 2025 6:31:09 PM
> *To:* <ARBIRD-L...> <ARBIRD-L...>
> *Subject:* Fatal bear attacks in perspective
>
> 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*
>
>
>
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