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Submitted: June 4, 2007
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Make:FUJIFILM
Model:FinePix S9000
Shutter Speed:1/45 second
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Focal Length:8 mm
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Date Taken:May 26, 2007, 3:13:29 PM

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Highway Casualtyby ~pitbulllady

Photography / Animals, Plants & Nature / Wild Animals

This is the skull of a young male American Black Bear that was killed on the highway near Friendfield Plantation, near Georgetown, South Carolina. It now graces the mantlepiece in what used to be the Overseer's house. Georgetown County has the largest population of Black Bears in the state, and unfortunately, bear-car collisions are rather frequent, with bad results for both the bears, which are usually killed, and the drivers, who are often seriously injured themselves. This skull clearly shows the omnivorous characteristics of the species-long dagger-like carnivore canine teeth with flattened molars designed for grinding plant material.

pitbulllady

~TheGreatMC Apr 18, 2008

Hope that bear did not suffered long..It's still less gruesome way of passing than what happened in my country during vacation...Bear scared a bunch of turist while searching for food. After some preparations this group returned and slaughtered (how - I really don't know..) poor animal..Of course that bunch had some problems in the court, but it does not bring help to still shrinking brown bear population...

~pitbulllady Apr 18, 2008

That's awful! Unlike our Black bears, which are plentiful and actually extending their range, and which benefit from a suburban environment to some extent, I know that the European Brown bear(same as our Grizzly out west) is in trouble and become more and more scarce. Maybe at least that group of tourists will learn a tough lesson. We have a very heavily regulated hunting season on Black bears, and permits to hunt are not cheap nor are they given to just anyone, and using the fees gathered from permits, the state's Dept. of Natural Resources can carefully monitor bear populations and re-locate problem bears that come too close to people. Bear-car collisions, though, happen more frequently as the bear population rises, and often both the bear and the driver of the car wind up losing their lives.

pitbulllady

~mentalguru Jun 5, 2007

Poor bear. You in America are lucky to have such creatures; I live in Britain where most large predators (bears and wolves) were wiped out ages ago by our ancestors.

Just curious: what is the status of black bears in your local area generally- are they common or threatened? I've been to Canada on holiday (but I know you're the US, not Canada) and there seem to be ALOT around the towns (not to mention not very bright tourists which STOP AND TAKE A PICTURE FROM OUTSIDE THEIR CARS).

It freaks me out when people do that. I may have to do something like it myself one day (I wish to work in conservation), but it freaks me out to see people who aren't professionals and who don't know what they're doing do it.

~pitbulllady Jun 5, 2007

Here in much of the Eastern US, Black Bears are far more numerous than most people think. They assume that because they never see one, that they don't exist. South Carolina has a very healthy Black Bear population, one that is managed by a legal(and strictly-controlled)hunting season. In some places, like Georgetown County, which is along the Atlantic coast, they have become almost TOO numerous, to the extent that the environment has trouble supporting them. That's when bear-human conflicts occur. Bears are magnificent animals, but you can't lose sight of the fact that even the Black Bear can be extremely dangerous under certain situations. In many places, they've lost a lot of their fear of humans due to associating humans with FOOD-NOT a good combination for any large predator! We have the same problem with alligators; people feed them, which conditions them to expect human=food. You've seen first-hand the cavalier attitude the people in Canada have towards bears, and here we have the same thing. People think it's so neat to have bears on their property, until their car gets ripped apart because they left a bit of McDonald's biscuit on the front seat in the driveway, or their Yorkie gets eaten, or a garden is destroyed(yes, bears will eat veggies, and LOVE melons). Bear attacks on humans in the Eastern US have increased, and most of them are fatal. It's not a matter of a bear protecting cubs, either, not when the bear carries off and EATS part of the person it killed! We haven't had any attacks here in South Carolina, but car-bear collisions are another thing. Often, when they occur, both the bear and the driver of the car pay the ultimate price. The two record Black Bears were both killed in the Carolinas; one, which stood as the world record for many years, was killed by a motorist near the town of Kingsburg, in lower Florence County, and weighed over 600 pounds. The motorist, who was driving a small compact Japanese car, was also killed. About 12 years ago, a bow hunter shot and killed one weighing over 700 pounds near Jacksonville, North Carolina, along the coast, so we definately have some big bruins here!

pitbulllady

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