From the article...
This time, the hare hunter was charged after he rounded a corner and surprised the sow, who was 25 years old or more.
"A rabbit hunter was in the brush and kind of woke them up out of their beds," Crye said. "He felt threatened by the sow, so he shot the sow."
This is what Hererra and others refer to as a sudden or unexpected encounter scenario. Surprising bears is a bad thing because they apparently associate such surprises as a sign of danger and will act aggressively as part of their natural response. The fact that it was a sow with cubs makes the situation that much more dangerous because the sow is also acting in defense of her cubs. Such encounters do not necessarily result in the bear eating the person who is charged. Just because the bear closes on you does not mean it is going to eat you as Geek suggested. Often is the case that the bear neutralizes the threat and moves on with its business, assuming it isn't hungry. Playing dead in such a case is often what has kept people alive during sudden encounter attacks. Given that the sow was thin and out at this time of year, the attack very well could have resulted in a meal for the sow and cubs.
I'm angry at the hunter for getting himself in that position. Sure, bear attacks happen, but most could be avoided by using common sense and staying alert.
Hmmm...care to enlighten us how he might have avoided the bear? Have you ever been to Alaska, let alone Kodiak? Nice of you to judge a situation which you probably have zero knowledge about.
Ya ain't been huntin' much, have ya ..?
Right. Just what sort of common sense do people have to avoiding bears that they don't know are there? How does one avoid a sleeping bear that is out of sight and not making noise except for breathing? What common sense makes it possible to avoid a bear that is around a blind corner from where you are?
I've watched videos showing Grizzly traveling uphill. After a short time they are barely moving trying to conserve energy.
Bears are sprinters not long range broken field runners. Their size works against them.
Bears may be sprinters, but they can sprint at over 30 mph. They can sprint long enough and fast enough to run down deer, elk, and moose, all of which are considerably faster than humans. If you don't think they can run far or fast, check out this video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ubM9ZTcLsE
Keep in mind that at 30 mph, bears can cover about 40+ feet per second. Nobody other than the world's best runners are going to be able to run 100 yards in less than 10 seconds, and that is on a flat track, running shoes, lightweight clothing made for running, and without carrying a load. The 10 second 100 yard dash translated into 30 feet per second. So the bear is about 50% faster than human sprinters. Take your average hunter/hiker in their field gear and loads, they would be lucky to cover 100 yards in 20 seconds, or 15 feet per second. At that speed, the bear is 3 times faster than a human. If the hiker/hunter has a 100 foot head start on a grizzly, in four seconds the grizzly will cover over 160 feet and can catch the human who has covered just sixty feet (plus the initial 100 head start for a total of 160 feet).
Grizzlys are faster than humans on any terrain, flat, up hill, and down hill. They have more stamina than humans such that they can last long enough during the chase to catch you.
Plus, if you run, they are very likely to give chase just like many other predators.
If a Bear is enraged you are probably toast, but since Bears normally weigh food value against energy expenditure they won't waste time on prey that they'd have to use much energy to catch.
Um no, probably not. They have never been shown to have the ability to calculate caloric benefit versus caloric expenditure. Bears are smart, but not that smart.
They aren't much interested in Primates as a food source, but will eat you if they are hungry enough, and kill you if you make a nuisance of yourself then eat you to avoid wasting the meat and to replace energy.
Um no. Bears have never been shown to be conservationists and eating a kill to avoid wasting meat. That is just plain silly talk.