I'm no expert on bears but I'd be cautious with black bears around. My understand is that they can be aggressive towards humans. I saw a supremely scary video once that a guy took of him being stalked by a black bear. He foolishly got off the boat he and his brother were fishing from and went into N. Ontario bush country with his video camera. A bear came towards him and he had nothing to defend himself with. If you can imagine this he was afraid to turn his back for fear the bear would charge so he backpeddled through the brush towards the shoreline, stumbling over deadfalls and falling down, all the time screaming at the bear to go away. The bear came at him and he actually hit it with his camera. The fact that he was aggressive towards the bear saved his life. Unlike grizzlies, they say that playing dead gets you killed by black bears. And don't even think about climbing a tree.

I'm in Manitoba and a few years back we had a older fellow killed by black bear. He went out to pick raspberries on his property and met it doing the same. This was in the country but not in the bush - farm land and built up home lots. Same year they were bears going thru peoples yards and mauling dogs (chained - couldn't escape) up near a small town. This occurred in September - it was a lean year for berries in the bush. I took slugs with me when I went grouse hunting just in case. (would have preferred a Magnum revolver but not allowed in Canadaicon).
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