Re: dealing with marauding bears

If you could scare the bear away you'd be doing everyone a favor - especially the bear. Left to his/her own devices, if the bear raids your camp and finds an easy source of food (no stalking, no hunting, no fighting) then they'll be back - who knows - they might even tell their fellow bears about it.

Now, that's easy to say while sitting in my office nice and warm and safe - at 3AM - unsure of what you'd be facing (an old boar, a young bear, a sow with a cub?) AND who may be waiting 10-20 yards away from the bear you can see the decision might go the other way, but in the past I've gone out and tried to scare Yogi (who turned out to be a young black bear in the one case where he stuck around long enough for me to see him/her) away. The other times all I found was evidence - never saw the bear.