I had been told years ago that if you were hiking with at least six people, bears would not bother you. It seems some bears didn’t get that memo or the other one regarding pepper spray. Too bad someone in the group didn’t have a gun on them, but that promotes disharmony with nature. A ban on hunting these animals couldn’t possibly have led to them losing their fear of humans either. And so on.
“It’s the ecosystem being out of balance that means grizzly bears are getting desperate,” he said, citing recent clear-cutting and forest fires pushing bears from of their habitat.
He dismissed suggestions that bears may be more aggressive before hibernation because the animals do not look to human prey. Scapillati said he worried about pro-hunting groups using the attack to spread inaccurate information about bears being aggressive. “That’s so inappropriate at a time when we’re focused on holding the children and families and all those affected in our hearts and focused on them,” Scapillati said.
