Discussing Bears in the Wild

I read something about a bear that caused me to wonder just what do we know about bears in the wild.

Let me begin by asking the first question.

Are bears vegetarians?

In other words, do bears eat meat?

Hi Daryl,

I've heard a picture is worth many words. If you have a high speed connection,

Brown Bear kills moose in driveway:

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-...earch&plindex=4

Wow! That was really something. Who would have thought. Seems like the moose could have out run the bear. Wonder why it just didn't leave.

Bears are omnivores. I learned this in school, they will eat plants and meat.
God Bless,
Will

Here is an interesting link that also talks about other creatures that are omnivores. I recognize one of those faces, cause we use to have raccoons make nightly visits to our trash can! haha
Omnivores
God Bless,
Will

I thought I had heard that bears are strictly vegetarians.

I wonder what their preferred diet is?

Last month we were in Yellowstone and saw a mother grizzly with three older cubs. Cute as can be. Three weeks later we heard they killed a woman and ate her. Pretty sad.

My understanding is that bears like fruits and berries, fish, and carrion, but will eat just about anything given the right circumstances.

I had forgotten about bears liking to eat fish, but it's the first time I heard about them eating a person.

I am laughing thinking about the song where the bear was chasing a man in hot persuit. The man was praying out loud to God begging for God to help him. The bear was rapidly gaining ground and the man changed his prayer request; "Lord yelled he, If you are not going to help me please don't help the bear.!" I am going to suppose the bear was not a vegan bear.
Laughingdove
(Carolyn)

That is humourous.

for that.

Not a bear in the wild, but here is a site with some cute photos of polar bear cub in a zoo. I think it is in Germany. Knut the cute polar bear.

I finally got around to checking out that link.

Nice pictures!

Cubs look so innocent and harmless in their infancy, but not so harmless later on, especially amongst those in the wild.

God created all creatures, large and small. Some are soft and fluffy, and some are soft and dangerous. However, we should celebrate and love all of God's creatures. We should protect and help those creatures he has created. We as a church have learned to help our fellow man, but I think we've forgotten our fellow creatures.

Every day we endanger more and more species. We increase our population, we build more roads, more houses. We encrouch upon their habitat, limiting their way of living. We take their resources, alter their way of living.

I look forward to the day of His return, when all life will be preserved. The day we stop endangering and killing off God's creatures. Like those cute little bear cubs, and fuzzy little baby tigers, and cute little otters.

Those pics that crater posted are so cute and yet make me so sad. If God doesn't return soon, there might not be anymore polar bears left. At the rate of global warming, and loss of habitat and resources, there's not much time for them left in the wild. They may soon only reside in zoo's and other man made area's.

Kind of like humans?

"So innocent and harmless in their infancy, but not always so harmless later on."

Sure, I think anything can have the capacity to cause harm. But that's the choice God gave us. And when Eve made that choice, we knew the full consequences of those actions. So thus, we must be careful, and thoughtful in all our actions. We should consider how our actions will impact our lives and the lives of those around us.

I think there's always a lesson in nature.

Another humorous bear story I once heard:

An inexperienced fellow wanted to go hiking in the boondocks. He went to the wilderness store near the area of interest to stock up on supplies. His guide suggested that among other things he should buy pepper spray and some little bells on strings. When the novice hiker asked the guide why he needed these items, the guide said, "The bells are for noise, so you won't walk up on any bears and surprise them at close range. They'll hear you coming and will be less likely to lash out due to being startled. The pepper spray is a last-resort repellent which hopefully you won't need. But get it just in case. We have both black bears and grizzlies up here. The black bears are pretty peaceable, but the grizzlies can be aggressive if you get too close." So the novice got some pepper spray and tied some little bells onto his clothing, and away they went.

A couple of miles up the trail, the two men happened upon some bear dung. "What kind of bear left that?" asked the novice hiker.

"That came from a black bear," said the guide.

"How can you be so sure?" asked the novice.

"Oh, that's easy," answered the guide. "In these parts, grizzly bear dung smells like pepper and has little bells in it."