OT: I would have found this to be "unbearable."

[Steelerone]

Here is "the story". People on vacation do dumb things in nature. It is a natural park in Mexico.

Woman Takes Selfie with Wild Black Bear in Insanely Close Encounter

A bear had an insanely close encounter with a few women out for a hike in Mexico.

www.tmz.com

I'm not sure the term "dumb" is sufficent. One of the unfortunate facts of having a lot of encounters with bears is that after awhile you tend to forget that they are wild animals and you truly cannot predict their behavior.

It took me a moment but that cracked me up.

Thanks for pointing that out. I missed it at first and after you posted your reply I got it to.

 

[Steelerone]

The poet Arthur Guiterman, in his "On The Vanity of Earthly Greatness" put it in perspective.

"The grizzly bear whose potent hug
was feared by all, is now a rug."

Bama, my Grandparents in Madera, Pa. had a hugh Black Bear rug as you went from the kitchen to the living room with it's face looking upward, teeth bared. I knew every time I walked into the living room that it was going to attack and have me for supper.

 

[Steelerone]

Folks are not always blessed with common sense. Less often, you read of them doing remarkably stupid things at the zoo.

We have quite a selection of nasty things here in Arizona, but size is not generally the problem. Snakes, insects, even frogs.

Then there are Javelina - a form of Peccary. We saw some when we were driving around the day before our Arizona house hunt and called our sales agent to find out what they were. He explained, and indicated some folks - for some obscure reason - think they are cute and feed them. Javelina get very mad when they are not fed when they expect to be. None in our neighborhood, just an occasional Coyote.

One other example of human, well, not common sense. Some folks keep Capybara as pets - up to allowing them to sleep in their bed. That also does not necessarily go well. If you don't know what a Capybara is, I won't ruin it for you.

KnightBridge, I was driving through Arizona years and years ago on my way to Cal. I stopped at this roadside cafe to grab something to eat and the guy who ran it had God knows how many rattlesnakes skins decorating the walls. I asked where he got all of them and he just looked at me and said "outside". I immediately made a vow to myself never to vacation or live in Arizona for the rest of my life.

 

[Steelerone]

Generally the males will tell you their weight if asked. But with the females it is considered in poor taste to ask.

Bama, LMAO at that reply.

 

[Steelerone]

Here's a few pics of my closest bear encounter. This is zoomed in...slightly. I was in the middle of a long hike and kinda zoned out and all of a sudden realized there was a bear in the middle of the trail right in front of me. While I was trying to figure out what to do it bailed off on the downhill side and then went back to browsing. I did not ask it how much it weighed, but I would say plenty enough. This was in Olympic National Park, where the bears are plentiful and well behaved as far as I know.

NW, if I were going to hike that is where I would want to be. Great photos of great scenery.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

For whatever reason the Grizzlies were exceptionally testy this year. On average there is one encounter producing injury in the first 6 months of the year in the Greater Yellowstone Region. This year there were 7.

 

[Steelerone]

The rare and horrifying "Ursus Rodenta". When they attack, they go straight for the nuts!

On a roll today, Bama

 

[dogged1]

For whatever reason the Grizzlies were exceptionally testy this year. On average there is one encounter producing injury in the first 6 months of the year in the Greater Yellowstone Region. This year there were 7.

Could it be the masks people are wearing?