Hap,

While I completely understand your perspective on never feeding bears in the wild (or any animal for that matter), I'm not sure that what vicrider described would have constituted feeding the bear in the same sense that you mean. If I read his story correctly, he stated that if the bear had managed to cross the river and started after him to get his fish, he would have tossed the fish to distract the bear while he got the heck out of there. I can't say that I blame him in the least. If I thought a bear or any critter was chasing me for the fish I had caught, I'm going to ditch those fish ASAP to avoid a confrontation with the animal. I suspect that most people would do the same.

To your point however, it sounds quite possible that that bear had been fed by past fishermen and that was why it was so intent on getting to virider to get his fish. I worked for NH Fish and Game when I got out of college and 99% of the unfortunate animal/people encounters seemed to stem from ignorant people trying to interact with the animals by feeding them or even trying to pat them. People seem to forget that they are wild animals and as such they will behave like wild animals.

A question to you. Since vicrider left the area as soon as he saw the bear and was attempting to get back to his vehicle to leave; given the same situation and assuming that the bear had managed to cross the river and start after him to get his fish, what should he have done?

Jim Smith