I remember reading two separate incidents about bear experts killed by bears. Some people suggest these experts grew too confident, or believed they’d become one with the bears and gained acceptance with these enormously powerful animals that possess astonishingly fast reflexes and incredible strength.

Maybe these people were right about the bear experts. I can see where a bear expert could become so fascinated with bears he’d forget the split second dangers just long enough to make a fatal miscalculation. I can see where he could become so focused on a bear’s behavior his survival instincts would recede, like a turtle’s head into its shell, that in the time it takes to draw a breath, a bear could be on him and rip his last breath out of him.

Still, as an acknowledged authority on bears, you’d figure he’d know every nuance of a bear’s behavior. Know how to avoid any, and would have some tricks in his bear bag to save his life in the most dangerous encounters.

Since that wasn’t the case with the bear experts slaughtered by their subjects, there must be something like a Murphy’s Law in bear behavior, some unpredictability that experts cannot fathom, that in seconds can shred decades of bear knowledge and send an expert to his grave.