Recently in the news, a man in Cariboo, BC, fought against a black bear in a life-or-death stuggle and came out winning, armed only with a stick. [news link]

Now, the fight was not provoked by Jim West. He was walking his dogs when he turned around and saw an agitated mother black bear. At such a close proximity against a black bear, anyone well-versed in the outdoors (and I’m not talking about just going outside, a walk around Stanley Park or some urban park, but the Great Outdoors that isn’t flooded with concrete or many signs of civilization) would do what West did that fateful day: fight.

Why? Well, the answer is quite simple really. Let’s take a look at some bear facts from the Bear Safety page on the BC Parks website:

• Bears are as fast as racehorses, on the flats, uphill or downhill
• Bears are strong swimmers.
• Bears have good eyesight, good hearing, and an acute sense of smell.
• All black bears and young grizzlies are agile tree climbers; mature grizzlies are poor climbers, but they have a reach up to 4 metres.
• If a bear is standing up it is usually trying to identify you. Talk softly so it knows what you are. Move away, keeping it in view. Do not make direct eye contact.

So what we are dealing with here is an aggressive black bear, possibly fed by some irresponsible humans thinking that feeding the animals will be fun.

If you decided to run for it, the bear will be able to catch up, since they are as fast as racehorses.

If you try climbing a tree, the black bear will be able to climb up it as well. Also, if you don’t climb up high enough, it can probably just stand up and grab at you.

If you tried to play dead with a black bear, you’ll end up dead (for those trying to learn something, playing dead only works for grizzlies). Best thing to do would be to try to retreat, but obviously at such a distance, retreat is practically impossible.

So really, West did the right thing and survived.

But it turns out some people who are uneducated in the outdoors have taken it upon themselves to harass the man for living and killing an animal that would have killed him. [news link]

That’s pretty sick people.

Here is a man who is trying to get over his injuries, only to have a bunch of idiots who know nothing about the outdoors harass him for doing the right thing.

If they were in his shoes, then they would have probably tried doing things like run for it, climb a tree, or play dead because (a) they do not know bears can outrun humans and (b) they can not identify a black bear. As a result, they would be dead.

Now, if it were a person instead of a bear, some of these idiots would have nothing to say. Hell, West probably would have been OK because he was defending himself from a person who was trying to kill him and unfortunately killed him out of self defense.

Yes, love the animals and protect them all you want. But when they start attacking you, you have to do something to survive. It’s a simple matter of survival of the fittest, as Charles Darwin put it.