Lately I have gotten the idea that if you meet bears on the mainland they may just be passing through, from one reliable food source to another, so they are easier to get rid of. If you meet one on an island, especially a small one, it came expressly for the cuisine, and didn't swim all that way for nothing.

Here is one that chased me off "my" island and left it as soon as I did. I don't think it followed its nose to me. I think it came because it had been rewarded for that trip in the past.

I thought the inset was needed because it just looks like a rock in the full image.

Posted by db on December 27, 1999 at 15:22