Storytelling Thursday - Bears

 

Last night, at a meeting that had not a lot to do with storytelling, a friend told me a bear story.  That's how she introduced it.  "I have to tell a bear story."

And her story was true - or so the person she heard it from claimed.  (That's the way it is, you know. ) Anyway, it appears that bear bags are no longer safe from the bears in a nearby National Park.  Now backwoods hikers need bear SAFES.  (I don't know the difference.  Anyone?)

The rangers had no idea why so many bear bags were torn open.  The bags were hung high above the reach of an adult bear.  So they laid a photo trap and here's what they found.

A mother bear stood on her hind legs beneath a hanging bear bag and reached one front paw up in the air.  Her cub scrambled up to the outstretched paw, balanced there and snagged the bear bag.  The thing is, soon all the mother bears were teaching their cubs to snag bear bags.  Bears are pretty smart where food is concerned.

 Everyone loves to tell stories about bears.  Listen to Old Man Mac as he tells of his adventures with a whole mess of bears. 

The very first story I ever told in public was Sody Sallyratus, a bear story you can find in Margaret Read MacDonald's Twenty Tellable Tales.  Here is a video of Richard Chase telling that selfsame story.