A Few bits on Scottish Environmental Conservation

[Lallans]

[QUOTE=Alan H;884660]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ica#Black_Bear

17 fatal Black Bear attacks in Canada and the USA in the 200's

7 fatal attacks in the USA and Canada in the 1990's

0 in the 1980's

4 in the 1970's.

UNQUOTE

I once attended a lecture by a black bear expert who, because he loved them, reluctantly admitted that black bears carry a (presently) rare and random gene mutation that, when it emerges, causes them to hunt humans. This is not what Farley Mowat would have taught us if he had ever got around to bears.

But on a lighter note; I refer you to the most excellent book, "A Walk In The Woods" by the remarkable Bill Bryson (also "In A Sunburned Country" and "Shakespeare: The World As Stage" by the same author) for a great perspective on bears and cross-country hikers. It is hilarious and Bryson's partner Katz had the best possible solution to provide sustenance while hiking through bear country: a backpack full of Snickers bars.

AA

Bryson is an interesting case of a brilliant writer, an American who bonded with the UK and who makes quite a living interpreting Americans to the British and vice versa. As Canucks, we can get to read both the US and UK versions of his books and it's interesting, if you're a fan, to see what is left out of each version. The US version, for instance, will skip the explanations of what a garage door opener is, which sorts of things are in turn carefully explained in the UK version. But it also means that when travelling to the US and the UK and buying Bryson's books, one has to be careful not to buy the same one twice (they have different titles in each country). A Walk In The Woods and the language books that were mentioned are indeed among his finest works and those only come in one version as far as I know. The man is dead funny.