Teen Attacked By Bear While Sleeping

That is so scary! What a lucky kid to have only received flesh wounds. His eyesight wasn't damaged, his skull didn't crack. Just amazing! I wonder if it was a fairly young bear. It is really rare for a bear to attack like that. Don't most bear attacks occur when you either make a mother bear nervous around her cubs or accidentally surprise or corner a bear to where they come out fighting in defense?

When my son was little, we used to do a lot of camping by ourselves, just the two of us. Up in Mammoth, there are lots of bears around and you have to be really careful about where you have your food, or even toothpaste and gum. They provide lock boxes for your food to keep the campground safer. We were asleep in our tents one night when I heard a loud sniffing noise. I realized there was a bear directly outside of our tent. It didn't hang around my tent for long, it was on its way to the dumpster on the other side of our camp space. As soon as the bear was engrossed in his dumpster finds, I grabbed my son and our sleeping bags and we spent the rest of that camping trip sleeping in the back of the Volvo station wagon that I had at that time. I just couldn't relax in a tent. The camp host said we should be perfectly fine in the tent and to bang pots and pans together to scare the bear if it came into our camp again. No Thanks.

Yep, most bear attacks are defensive (so not surprising a bear is the most effective way to avoid an encounter. This is where a loud eight year old helps you out, lol. When backpacking a few years ago we knew a grizzly was in the area and I told my daughter to be as loud as she wanted. We did come across the bear, but did not surprise it and it didn't care a bit about us. We also had bear spray with us just in case).

Most bears who become problematic are ones that have somehow gotten human food (either intentionally or unintentionally) and eventually lose their natural fear. There is a saying "a Fed bear is a dead bear" because usually get have to be destroyed.

I would not have slept in the tent either if I had a bear sniffing around outside. That happened to us once in a lean-to and we packed up and hiked out in the middle of the night.

Each time I hear about a bear attack, I get more phobic. I used to hike alone with my dog, but I'm too scared to now, with so many sightings near us.

Oh, cripies, yet another bear story. And just when I hadn't had a bear nightmare for a week. There is a bear crossing sign (just like the leaping deer ones, only with the bear it just shows it lumbering on all 4 feet) a half mile from my house. In my dreams the things are all over the place and chase me up trees, then climb up after me. In reality, in the last 6 months I've only seen 1 bear, hurrying across the road.

Oh that has been all over the news here in the last day or so... shoot the dang bears are in our backyards sometimes.. I feel bad for them thou.. it's like we took over their space

I'm Glad he's ok! Dang. How terrifying!! Scary beyond words. So unusual. Beats do not normally do that. I wonder what caused it?

As previous posters have said, here at scout camp - obviously no food. But also, no toothpaste, no mouthwash, no deodrant, no 'fancy' soap with perfume of any kind, no shampoo. They do inspect for these items. All due to bears. They originally only allowed -unscented- shampoo and then changed it to none.

The boys could care less anyway it was the moms that complained. I think mine is the only one in his troop to shower all week.

We go up North sorry I type faster than my brain sometimes they are probably coyotes. I'm not sure we have wolves!

that's too bad. Not good for the bears or for people if things get ugly.