A friend of ours has many years of experience tracking and live trapping wildlife, usually as a consultant to NH F&G (he was the bob cat live trapper for the tracking project last winter). He also has hunting dogs that he uses to run and tree black bear in season but he never shoots them. So he is pretty familiar with their habits.
His take on the woman’s story:
It would be extremely unlikely and out of character for a black bear to climb onto a deck occupied by a dog and a human.
As bear don’t retract their claws, a swat strong enough to knock one down but leave no claw marks, while possible, is not highly likely.
More likely (my opinion), as the woman panicked, turned and lunged for the door, she probably simply fell down (she sure did not look very agile in the video). In the panic of the incident there may have been the perception of being knocked down. In any event her story and past feedings killed the bear.
It would be interesting if, with F&G help, a TV spot of life from the bear’s perspective could be aired to counter the hysterical spots that WMUR has run.
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