Food for thought

Just saw the video on Facebook as well. IMHO should be stopped and made sure no one can continue with it. If it continues the animal will get confused and then an accident is on the cards.

Strangely enough - has anyone noticed a "friendly" pied hornbill in Baan Krang as well? I figure it has habituation issues as well. Last weekend one climbed into the back of my covered pickup and climbed inside my wellington boot and then spent 15 minutes sat on my open door.

Totally agree this should be stopped immediately!
I noticed quite a few pictures on FB, but since it all seemed the same location I assumed it was the same sighting.
Though today again I saw new pictures in different light, and video, better pictures which made me wonder why the photographer did not post these instead of the first ones. But now it makes sense, as it is more than one sighting.

Please express your concerns about this with the rangers, I guess especially P'Pong at Ban Krang, perhaps some accompanying pictures from American Black Bears breaking into cars or even injuring people would help...
Feeding porcupines is one thing (not that I totally agree), but feeding bears is another!
I will be there in a week or so, and will definitely bring this up. If everybody shares his opinion with the rangers, the more likely something will be done. Or basically, the thing is, nothing should be done, meaning: no feeding!
At the same time I will most likely be a hypocrite and have a look to see if it shows up...
I am not really fond of the porcupine feeding spot, but at least so far that's mostly only visited by some rodents, civets and late at night jackals. In a way it is nice people have an easy opportunity to see some wild creatures, which is also part of awareness - learning what lives in these forests -, but it's not a zoo. And actually the rangers set a wrong example with it. If they do it, how can they possibly judge visitors to do the same in front of their tent?
It surprises me that the leaf monkeys still show little interest in the people. Maybe they are just not as bad as macaques...

Anyhow, increasing tourist numbers will slowly make wildlife more habituated to the human presence, which in general I think is not a bad thing. Like visible in all major parks in the world, e.g. the Kruger park in Africa, where the lions couldn't care less if you park 1 metre next to them. It has nothing to do with people feeding them. It is simply, as soon as hunting stops (at least in tourist areas), and a large number of people continue to visit daily without truly bothering the animals, it will make the animals more relaxed and learn that people don't do them any harm. Some would argue it is not natural if an animal is not scared of people, but humans have evolved from hunters into farmers over the ages so we are no longer 'predators' (generally speaking ;-) ), so there is no reason for the animals to fear (most) humans, so it IS natural. A deer also doesn't run when an elephant walks nearby. Simply, because it knows the elephant won't harm it. As soon as elephants start to evolve in predators hunting for deer, surely no deer will stand by to watch an elephant get closer.
Same is visible in Khao Yai where many gibbon families are habituated either due to tourist presence, or most likely actually started by the presence of researchers.
It is not necessarily a bad thing. It basically means the animals will be less stressed, and just continue with their normal behaviour, instead of having to flee in fear.
But to speed this process by feeding, is not the right way.
There is a big difference between being habituated simply due to presence of humans and learning we don't attack them, and being habituated due to feeding which will turn the animals into beggars and thiefs.

My wife & me also discussed this with him and he told us a handful of foreigners had expressed their worried feelings about this case (good to hear!) .
I had the feeling he was now getting more worried. Especially because yesterday morning around 6:30AM I saw the bear (which I presume is the same individual) cross the road right near the camping at the big fig tree. I feared it was heading in the direction of the 'porcupine' spot behind the restaurant, but it disappeared into the forest behind there.
I hope that helps P'Pong getting more nervous, now it is getting closer to the main camp; luckily he has a general fear for almost all wildlife, haha.
He immediately cleaned up the few food scrapes at the 'porcupine' spot, when he heard about our bear sighting.
But the question is if anything will be done. I guess the photographers all want their shots, and P'Pong is maybe a bit too soft to stop this from happening.

Saturday morning (not too early) I walked by the spot where it has been showing up, there was no food at that point.
And I think there were no groups staying at the youth camp this weekend. So if any images show up from this weekend of a bear eating anything, it must have been brought in by the photographers.... I did notice a bunch of cars came out late in the dark on Saturday night. I don't know if they got to see it. At least I am quite sure they probably did not see it Sunday morning, because the cars had only just gone in, when I spotted the bear cross the road, walking in opposite direction.

Let's hope either the rangers put an end to this, or that the bear just decides to not return...