Sparsely, Sage and Timely
By David V. Mitchell‘Exit, pursued by a bear’
– Stage direction from Act III, Scene III of Shakespeare’s ‘The Winter’s Tale’
Hungry and needing a break from work, I was headed on foot to the Bovine Bakery Tuesday when I noticed a cat flinch on the sidewalk ahead of me. It was one of those skinny feral cats found all over town, and as I watched, it started to trot across the Bank of Petaluma’s parking lot.
Instantly it was under attack. Six or eight blackbirds began diving at the cat and giving it pecks, forcing the cat to scamper under a parked car to escape.
Well, that was unexpected, I thought to myself just as one of the blackbirds landed on the pavement beside the car and began looking underneath it for the cat. Rather than try to catch the single bird, the cat retreated still further, running from the underside of one car to another.
Most of us in West Marin have seen blackbirds protect their nests by driving away hawks, ravens, and even innocent buzzards. In fact, I myself have been pecked on top of the head more than once while walking or bicycling near a blackbird nest. This, however, was the first time I ever saw a lone blackbird on foot intimidate a cat.
Then again, the critters of West Marin always seem to be surprising us. In 1983, coyotes returned to West Marin after a 40-year absence. When the federal government stopped sheepmen from killing coyotes with poisoned bait, the predators spread south from northern Sonoma County, where they had never disappeared. Their return drove half the sheep ranches in Northwestern Marin and Southwestern Sonoma counties out of business.
In the past five years or so, sightings of mountain lions in West Marin have increased markedly, especially around Nicasio Reservoir and on Mount Tamalpais.
Even around my cabin, badgers, coyotes, and feral turkeys have begun showing up in the past year. I’m on the daily circuit of several blacktail deer and the nighttime circuit of an unknown number of foxes and raccoons. I know the latter are around because of their formal tradition of leaving calling cards, albeit of scat.
However, no one was prepared for a wayward bear to wander back into in West Marin on May 25 after a 134-year absence. It probably was one of the rusticated bears from Occidental, where there are several, but it acted as sophisticated as any denizen of Yellowstone or Yosemite. The bear raided several parks’ Dumpsters, feasted on campers’ food, and destroyed garbage cans in Muir Woods National Monument. Its only nod to aboriginal bearhood was to rob a couple of beehives while in Muir Beach.
Most of us don’t worry about our safety outdoors despite the coyotes, bobcats, and mountain lions. Although mountain lions in West Marin have attacked goats and sheep in recent years, no humans have been harmed.
Bears, however, are more likely to attack humans, so campers in the Point Reyes National Seashore and Golden National Recreation Area will need to take extra precautions from now on. Kerry A. Gunter, a wildlife biologist with the Bear Management Office at Yellowstone National Park, has published an Information Paper that says "keeping a clean camp free of food scraps and other garbage is...critical to being safe in bear country."
Among female campers, Gunter acknowledges, a delicate question periodically arises: are bears really attracted to menstruating women or is that just an old wives’ tale? After a grizzly bear in Glacier National Park killed two women in 1967, it became widely believed that female campers are in particular danger from bears.
Although the Glacier National Park attack was later found to have no link to menstruation, "the jury is still out on whether or not women may face greater danger in bear country due to their menstrual cycles," biologist Gunter says.
Scientific studies, he notes, have come to different conclusions for different types of bears. A 1985 study that "analyzed the circumstances of hundreds of grizzly bear attacks on humans...concluded there was no evidence linking menstruation to any of the attacks." (I’m frankly amazed that the researchers could come up with "hundreds of grizzly bear attacks on humans" to study.)
On the other hand, Gunter adds, a 1983 study found that when captive polar bears were "presented with a series of different odors, including seal scents, other food scents, non-menstrual human blood, and used tampons," the polar bears were interested only in the tampon and seal scents. Not good.
Fortunately, the same is not true for black bears, such as the one that wandered down from southern Sonoma County. The biologist reports that "an extensive review" of attacks by black bears found "no instances of black bears attacking or being attracted to menstruating women."
Were I a female camper hereabouts, I think I’d find that "extensive review" reassuring. I wouldn’t, however, go camping in the Arctic without first giving it careful thought – not that anyone should.