Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Nature Can Be Sooo Cruel- Head & Tail



Aren't Bears Cute???
I have a friend who has a deathly fear of snakes. Big snakes, small snakes all snakes. If it slithers then she is afraid of it, jumps 6 ft in the air and runs blindly at record breaking speeds in the opposite direction. Why all the running I ask her, does she really think the snake is in hot pursuit??? I would call her fear of snakes a phobia because for the most part it is irrational. I on the other hand have a completely rational fear of bears. Bears are BIG with BIG TEETH and CLAWS and may decide to claw at you or bite your head if you tick them off enough. With all that said I was sad the other day when a Policeman made the decision to shoot a bear who had followed his nose down the lake and into town for a snack. The snack he was after was garbage and not human or canine or feline or Mr. and Mrs. Heron so why did the Officer need to shoot him with a bullet? It is my best guess that the Officer decided to error on the side of safety as in , "Better Safe then Sorry". However living so close to nature I really think we need to have a better plan then that. I am pretty sure that Officer didn't go home bragging about how he killed a bear today. Perhaps that Officer also had a fear of bears the way I do. Human fears usually result in a "fight or flight" response and can make us do the darndest things. My friend's natural response was "Flight", the Officer's was "Fight". Yes, bears are scary creatures but so are Policemen shooting guns with bullets practically in my front yard. Of course the hunters in my back yard are another story.

3 comments:

Sara Montgomery said...

Did you see the article in today's whig about all the bear contact this year? Makes me so sad.

The June Explore magazine has a really interesting article on bears too. Here's a link to their blog about it...
http://explore.outdoorsica.com/blogs/james_little_explore_editor/2009/jun/01/up_close_with_bears/

Eliza Ralph-Murphy said...

OK Bears are cute...baby bears anyways. I missed the acticle in the Whig. It is interesting the way the Dr. seems to understand bears. I am going to look into the bear issue a bit further. I think a healthy respect for bears will do them and myself more good then a fear of them. Respect comes from knowledge, fear comes from ingnorance. Like with that snapping turtle.

Sara Montgomery said...

I agree re a healthy respect.

A lot of people have been bitten by dogs, but I love dogs and don't even think about that unless I'm faced with one that is being aggressive. I figure Lynn Rogers must have a similar relationship with bears, though the stakes are higher etc.