wild animal and human interaction

[joko]

I have just watched something on tv about a grizzly bear that was injured trying to protect its cub (it fell from a telephone pole) the emergency services came and took the bear to get treatment. the bear was in a bad way and let them do their thing. eventually the bear recovered and was reunited with her cub and released.

i just wondered if the bear would realise that the humans had saved it and its cub and looked after it and nursed it and would therefore feel some kind of gratitude and therefore never attack a human?

has there been any kind of study, evidence etc to say that any wild animal would not attack a human because they had been kind to it - or do they not have the capacity to feel that way and the instinct to eat takes over.

could they recognise the particular humans in question i wonder, and if they came face ot face again in the wild the bear would not attack?

i have heard that whales remember people ( but that could have just been a film - can't recall) and obviously animals remember their owners.

i know many tame animals can turn suddenly but i just wondered if it worked the other way round.

cheers

[Lonnie]

I don't know if its a true story or not, St Francis of Assissi?.

[andy-hughes]

I think that the notion of a bear understanding something as complex as a residual affection for humans based on this incident is highly unlikely. Bears are territorial animals, they eat, defend their territory, and make little bears, much like most animals with the exception of humans.

It's a great idea, but a bit of a non-starter.

[joko]

well obviously it sounds unlikely - i wouldn't have asked otherwise.

unbelievable things happen all the time, many animals behave out of what we perceive as their natual character, so i wondered if anyone had some evidence either way, not just an educated guess.

[dancecaller]

Do you notice that, though this thread is about kindness to bears, half of the adverts are for hunting.

[wildwood]

I am sure a bear is not able to show gratutude in response to human kindness. More than likely a bear in the above situation would associate being hurt with humans and be even more dangerous - attacking a human in its territory to expel a danger, rather than for eating. In the situation that you described where the bear let humans 'do their thing', any animal - wild or tame - will in some cases of bad injury become subdued and appear to give up. This is to reserve their energy and make a last dash effort to escape the danger. Every hunter knows that just because a recently shot animal appears dead, it can sometimes still get up and be extremely dangerous.

The whales are probably the most intelligent (in human terms) type of animal and, while every animal can remember, the cetaceans appear to be endowed with a very good memory. There are genuine cases of people having been saved from drowning by wild dolphins and one documentary sticks in my mind where a large whale appeared to attack a snorkeling diver and hold her by the leg, but it seems that the animal was merely playing and when it realised that the diver was in distress through lack of oxygen, the animal rapidly rose to the surface and let her go, so that the diver could breathe. The animal had apparantly become so used to humans being able to breathe under water (with a scuba ofcourse) its intentions were far from sinister.

[heathfield]

There was a Readers Digest feature some years ago about a hunter who came across a female timber wolf with a leg caught in a gin trap buried in the snow. He couldn't approach her since she made it very obvious that she'd attack. But he realised by the look of her that she had pups somewhere, and that they'd starve if he just put her out of her misery. He followed her tracks back to a cave where the pups were. Making wolf noises he enticed them out, put them in a sack, and returned to the mother, where he released them. They immediately ran to her. Next, he went to where he'd seen a small dead deer, and returned with it. He threw it toward the mother wolf, who eventually began to feed on it. Erecting his tent a few yards away, he stayed alongside the group for about three days, rolling about and playing with the pups as they investigated him, and bringing them back closer to the mother if they strayed too far. All the time he was gradually getting nearer and nearer the trapped wolf. In the end, realising he meant no harm, she lost enough of her fear to allow him to come close enough to release the trap. As the group took off, and just before they disappeared into the forest, the wolf turned and looked back at the hunter almost as a gesture of thanks. Yeah, well it would, wouldn't it?...It was a Readers Digest story, after all!

Whether that wolf would remember the hunter and allow him to come close next time, I don't know - but I doubt it.

Mind you, there's always the tale of Androceles and the Lion...