How are there so many videos, etc. of people interacting with bears peacefully even though they aren’t domesticated?
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Bears are not naturally aggressive animals. Aggression stems from fear, hunger or mating season.
Most wild animals are not aggressive all the time. But if you catch them at the wrong time, you’re screwed. And it’s not a good idea to let large animals get comfortable around humans because they often end up getting euthanized for public safety if they start wandering around neighborhoods too much. Hence the saying “a fed bear is a dead bear”
So yeah, a bear might not always be violent – but why roll those dice? And you don’t want to endanger the bear by encouraging it to become too social.
It’s mostly a matter of irritation.
A bear really just doesn’t care about you in most instances. You’re a hairless anxiety ridden monkey, and it’s an apex predator; you’re a minor threat at best.
The bear isn’t a murder machine. It’s not often gonna lash out unless something puts it on edge — like hunger, or stress. Bears also aren’t territorial, so it’s not like it’s gonna kill you because you’re existing wrong
You’re putting a lot of weight in the word “domesticated”. That word truly has nothing to do with the behavior of an individual animal.
Hell, you can find a house cat that wants to murder children and a coyote who just wants to cuddle.
Most animals aren’t interested in mauling you. Imagine you’re walking to Starbucks to get a coffee, minding your business, and then some literal alien starts harassing you. You have no idea why it’s making weird beep-boop noises, you have no idea what that flashing light is. Your first instinct is probably to get the fuck away from this thing, especially if you’ve never seen one before. That’s how most wild animals feel about humans.
Now, imagine it’s a year later. The aliens just kinda show up at times and you don’t really know why or how. Sometimes they give you money? Other times they try to get really, uncomfortably close to you – or even touch you. Maybe on a good day you just tolerate it, maybe on a bad day you don’t and you yell at one of them. Maybe one of them does something scary or rude, and you punch them in self-defense. Maybe one of them tries to stop you from entering Starbucks, and you *really* want your morning Frappuccino, and you punch them. Now you know how animals who live near humans feel.
Imagine you grew up with these aliens. You might tolerate them *better*, you might even love them in your own way, but you might also think “fuck these guys, I’m eating crackers in bed.” And then you punch them when they come in for the hundredth time and take away your crackers, or maybe when they poke you in the belly and that pisses you off, or maybe when someone’s eating steak and not sharing. Now you know how a tamed wild animal feels.
Or, maybe you’re just a super chill dude and you love your alien buddies! You’re willing to give them all the understanding and love in the world, they’re family to you. They give you food and massages. That doesn’t mean you can’t be in a scared or hurt or angry frame of mine and still punch someone, though. That’s what a domesticated animal feels.
And that’s why there’s a lot of videos, pics, etc of people interacting with non-domesticated animals peacefully, and why you should still leave the wild animals the fuck alone + be mindful of domesticated animals.
Side comment but “domesticated” doesn’t mean tamed or able to be tamed. It means that humans have been involved in their breeding for so long that the species has been altered to a point where you could say humans created it. Milk cows as we know them never lived “in the wild.” There is no such thing as wild cauliflower. Those species have essentially been developed by humans through long periods of selective breeding. That’s what domesticated means.
Granted, most domesticated animal species are compatible with humans because we breed things to serve us. So there is a high correlation between being tamable and being domesticated, they’re just not the same thing.
The right species of bear (north american black bear) can be pretty docile if fat and full. They just want food and quiet.
That said, best to stay calm and keep your distance.
Black bears are chill, and they don’t want to interact with us.
Brown bears are a lot less chill, and they don’t want to interact with us.
White bears have no chill, and they don’t want to interact with us.
To start with, it’s a bad idea to mess with bears a all
But bears aren’t generally very violent guys. Unless they’re trying to eat you or you’re pissing them off they’ll probably just let you chill. With black bears you can pretty easily scare them by shouting and waving your arms, and if that doesn’t work you’re actually supposed to sock them in the nose. That parts really sensitive and they’ll eventually run off.
Grizzly bears are more aggressive but still kinda chill. They usually steer clear of people, but if one goes up to you just play dead and they’ll go away.
Polar bears will actually just murder you but I doubt most of us have to worry about them.
Also, under no circumstance should you ever run from a bear. If it’s a black bear scare them off if it’s a brown bear play dead.
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