This bear support organization's anecdotal experience seems to be different than what the average hiker might encounter
Actually it's a single individual's first-hand 40-year-experience, not the organization's, and being first-hand, probably not anecdotal.
That being said, he didn't say attacks were non-existent, just rare (more so than most other dangers we face), and that black bears are not as they are perceived to be by the general uninitiated public. Does "animal instinct" necessarily apply in the same way and to the same extreme for each species? I doubt it. That's what makes them different. I would imagine we could learn a lot from this person about how to behave around bears if/when we encounter them in the wild.
CaT
