Bear Mauls 7 Survival School Students

Not sure why this is not a defensive attack. She had a cub. Something like 80% of documented bear attacks involve the presence of cubs IIRC.
 
My opinion as to why I thought it was an aggressive/ ambush attack is that the people seemed to have very little to no warning. It has always been my understanding that bears typically posture and bluff before attacking when they feel threatened ie, they are in fight mode. There is no need to scare your food. As for bear attacks involving cubs, some may be defense of cubs, some may be feeding of cubs, who knows for sure.
Again, I think these young men were far more prepared than most who wander the woods, had bad luck, made the best of it, and the situation would have been unchanged by either the addition of an "Adult" or a firearm. They were trained, and seemed to react well, that tells me that the outfit training them did a pretty good job.
I could be wrong, its happened before. Can you tell I've worked with overly sheltered kids?
 
I know this is amateur "bear psychology," but the group might not have seen any pre-attack posturing due to brush or heard any "huffing" over the sounds of water, wind, and the group crossing a river and being teenagers.

The bear, living in a world that is more scent that visual, may have misinterpreted the meaning of the group's continuing to advance rather than run away.

Not that it matters all that much.
 
Uh, dude, where did you come to that conclusion? Are you assuming that these guys were not paying attention, or do you have a link to some info? Seems kind of rude to me to say this about some young men who by all accounts were challenging themselves in unfamiliar territory.
A couple years ago a bow hunter was killed in southern alberta, I couldn't find a news link (sorry) but from what I remember the post showed that he had been killed almost immediately from one or two blows. He was quite probably ambushed, and was an experienced outdoorsman and hunter. Sometimes these things happen. Maybe the bear didn't hear them over the water. Maybe, Maybe, Maybe. We can arm-chair quarter-back this one to death, but it does those young men great disrespect to not acknowledge that they over came a pretty major ordeal. It's not like they sat in a corner and cried until help arrived, they made a good plan and carried it out, probably saving the lives of the two that were most hurt.
I have no doubt those young men had knives, but I've watched more than a few people get rattled at miss a shot from 6 feet in a shooting range, never mind with real fear and adrenaline. I suspect that my skills with a firearm are not sufficient in those circumstances, and I consider myself to be quite competent.
sorry my thoughts are a bit scattered this evening.
 
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