Friday, January 21, 2011

Bears may look cute, but they will rip your head off if they have a chance

I find it odd that bears are portrayed as so friendly and cuddly in popular culture (cartoons, advertisements, etc.), especially since some species – like polar bears – are among the fiercest predators on the planet.
CollegeHumor recently made a funny video portraying pop culture bears (including Yogi and Winnie the Pooh) as savage killers.
Thankfully polar and grizzly bears don’t live in areas where many human are.
As with other wild animals, it is hard to find statistics on human deaths by bear attack.
Last year, bears killed three people in the U.S., according to an entry with citations on Wikipedia.
On Aug. 5, 2010, a sloth bear in the Amravati district of India killed four people, according to Thaindian News.
Bears also killed people last year near the Champawat district of India; the Anantnag district of India; and the Palpa district of Nepal.
That's 10 deaths documented, but I'll bet there were more last year.

Photo: Yogi Bear as a man-eater from CollegeHumor video.

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