Meeting Yogi for Real is Often Dangerous.

• Position: Yogi Bear - Brief Article

Yogi Bear and Boo Boo bring back fond memories of childhood. But real life encounters with bears are not so pleasantly memorable.

The mauling and death of a hiker by a black bear in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee this year was a sober reminder that wild animals will attack even if unprovoked. Arizona bears have come down from the mountains to drink from swimming pools and hang out in backyard trees. Colorado wildlife managers, ranchers and farmers killed 130 nuisance bears this year--an all-time high for the state.

The rapid transformation of rural and forested areas into homes and businesses is forcing wild animals to share their habitat with humans.

"Overdevelopment is causing most of the human-bear conflicts. These animals need huge expanses of wilderness," says Al Ivany, an education biologist for the New Jersey Fish, Game and Wildlife Division.

In New Jersey bears have eaten everything from goats to pet rabbits to llamas. More than 1,659 complaints were filed with the state in 2000 (compared to one complaint in 1975), including 29 cases of home invasions, 65 attacks on livestock and pets, and 34 incidents with aggressive bears." Bears calling the Garden State home once numbered fewer than 300, but now are 1,000 strong in this suburban state.

In response to the problem bears, the New Jersey fish and wildlife agency authorized the first legal bear hunt since 1970 for September 2000. But opponents blocked the hunt through legislative and legal means. Bowing to those pressures, the Senate passed the Black Bear Protection Act that banned bear hunting for five years while requiring nonlethal birth control studies. The Assembly had not considered the bill before the end of the 2000 session.

Governor Christie Whitman also urged the Fish and Game Council to cancel the hunt and called for a "bear management strategy" instead. The council...