Baldo by Hector D. Cantú and Carlos Castellanos for June 16, 2021

we don’t know what those 2 saw, and we might never will.

I think they just saw the bear paw print and decided to scream and run away.

¡¿OSO?!

I saw a “Big” Black Bear while walking my dog just last week. It was less than fifty yards away and ran when my dog chased after it. My dog is big, but fortunately has absolutely no tracking skills. I was still very nervous, not knowing if there could have been cubs nearby. Seeing one close while you are in the woods is very scary!

Brings up the old joke, you don’t have to run faster than the bear, but only have to run faster than your friend!

Have one (or two) wandering around our suburb – seems to enjoy the dumpsters. They avoid confrontation as much as possible. But like Egrayjames said, you stumble on one and it scares the stuff out of you.

Be glad it’s not a grizzly

You are NOT supposed to run or bike away from bears!

Whatever they saw, it made them go AAAAAAHHH!

The worst thing you can do is run away from a bear.

Baldo needs to learn to be “bear aware” – assuming it WAS a black bear (and not a grizzly), maintain eye contact, make yourself look large (stand the bikes up on their rear wheels) and back away slowly. Speaking calmly is a good idea as well. NEVER RUN! https://naturecanada.ca/news/blog/be-bear-aware/

Wrong thing to do in either case…….

DO NOT RUN… It signals the Bear to chase you and bears are faster than people. Our Black Bears are pretty mellow until they discover our trash can is bearproofed. Then they like to toss it around the driveway a bit.

At least they remembered to carry their Bikes with them while they ran for their lives.

They’d probably never find the bikes again if they left them behind.

It is recommended that you carry pepper spray with bells and whistle when walking in the woods.

Baldo and Cruz could tell black bear scat from grizzly scat.

Black bears scat will have fruits and nuts.

Grizzly scat can be identified by the smell of pepper spray, and the small pieces of bells and whistle.

There’s no such thing as a garden variety black bear. They are all forest and mountain variety.

Panels 3 & 4 are what’s known as a double take. It was a mainstay of slapstick humor.

Mmm a black bear. No laughing matter.