For the first issue of Southlands, Anya Groner profiles Wendy Cowan, a woman who was attacked by a black bear in 2024 while walking her dog in the woods of Lunenburg County, Virginia. As she recounts Cowan’s horrific encounter, excruciating recovery, and the surprising aftermath, Groner grapples with what rising bear populations mean for the humans who share space with these apex predators.
“If she wanted to kill me, she would have killed me,” Wendy muses often. At 59 years old, she’s joyful, athletic, and full of curiosity about the attack. Nearly everything about the incident was an aberration. Unlike most apex predators, black bears are timid animals, more apt to run away or climb a tree than approach a human. Those woofs and clicks are yawns that signal unease are the ursine equivalent of “using their words.” Such behaviors, called bluster, are meant to scare off trouble, not amplify it. If they happen at all, assaults are brief—swats or smacks followed by a swift retreat. Persistent violence is almost unheard of.
More picks about nature
Here a Bee, There a Bee, Everywhere a Wild Bee
“Biologists are finding new bee species all over the Pacific Northwest—highlighting how little we know about native pollinators.”
Editing Nature To Fix Our Failures
“Gene editing may enable us to prevent a species from ever becoming extinct in the first place. But should we?”
Saving the Monarch Butterfly Migration
“Their awe-inspiring migration is a cycle that repeats each year, spanning three countries.”
