"Hey Bob, put the ladder in"

From The Economist print edition

"THIS has been a horrific summer for bear attacks in Canada. Earlier this month, a 52-year-old fisherman on Vancouver Island was badly mauled after a black bear swam over to his boat, scrambled on board and began attacking him, refusing to let go—despite being repeatedly struck with a gaff, beaten with a hammer and stabbed with various sharp objects—until a rescuer finally managed to slit its throat with a filleting knife."

Have bears always been good swimmers (akin to the oft-noted Phelpsian talents of the pachyderm), or is this an evolutionary jump we are witnessing, (like when dolphins grew thumbs)?


[continue reading the article from The Economist]