I find it really extremely funny as I read through some of the opinion pieces that some in Maine and outside the state have offered to news media in support or opposition to next Tuesday’s bear hunting referendum. It is laughable and in some cases really phoney as a three dollar bill.
But I’ll not go down that road because, well, to be honest, I think people are sick and tired of reading how somebody doesn’t have facts because they disagree or there is no proof and claims of false advertisements. Yes, and now we have lawsuits. We are in a campaign and campaigns provide multiple platforms in which all sides can lie, cheat and steal, make promises and get away with it like thieves in the night. Puke!
But in this one instance, I really feel badly for the bears. They don’t get no respect! A letter to the editor writer, in an attempt to paint his opposition as a bunch of fear-mongering liars, actually paints a picture of bears as being nothing but a bunch of sissified panty-waists.
In rational discourse we might learn about where certain predators fall in the hierarchy of who’s on top and who’s on bottom. In Maine, not including man, I think a black bear is probably considered top dog….or in this case top bear, the apex predator, the one animal that others don’t want to mess with very often, if at all. (Note: I put man as top predator because there are some who have enough sense to get in out of the rain.)
I guess for the ignorant, the question should be, how did a bear obtain the distinction of top killer? After all, that’s what predators are notorious for. Does “hungry as a bear” have any meaning for you? Does the idea that a hungry bear kills deer fawns and moose calves, help in gaining that distinction? A well-fed bear is of little concern to humans; a damned hungry one and you best get the hell out of the way! I/we have no control over food supplies for bears. Talk to Mother Nature about that.
In this opinion piece, linked to above, the author describes bears as: gentle, elusive, intelligent, timid and peaceful. If this is true then the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of previous scientists, who labeled the black bear a top predator, much have been wrong. Can that be?
The poor bear.
In perceiving bears in the manner of them being gentle, elusive, timid and peaceful, one has to wonder….no, not really. I wonder – I doubt all that many others do actually wonder – if this is what is often described as “new understanding” or “new knowledge” and “shifting the paradigm” and how we discuss wildlife issues.
The poor bear. What a wuss!
