Over at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, they've been saluting black bears. Out in North Carolina's western mountains and down in our eastern lowlands, black bears have probably saluted right back. And why not -- the state's bruin crew is fat, relatively happy and on the march.

Hunted and harried by early settlers, bears retreated to the most remote mountains and coastal swamps. Their numbers dwindled. But like whitetail deer, they've made a major comeback, beginning in the past century. By 1971, 4,000 bears occupied 2.5 million acres here. And by 2004, North Carolina's ursine population had grown to 11,000, on 10 million acres.

A map from the N.C. Division of WIldlife Management shows the rapid growth in "bear-occupied range" from 1971 to 2001. It's enough to drive TV's famously bear-phobic Stephen Colbert batty.

From bases in the west and east, bears are advancing on the Piedmont in a pincer movement. If the bruin army were a real one, Raleigh would be contemplating surrender.

Instead, we're seeing more and more human-bear interactions. For people, bears are nature in the raw.

The state's largest mammals are best admired but not approached, and never, ever fed. For bears, mankind is still a bane. Most die at the hands of hunters and their hounds; some are hit by motor vehicles. Few live to a ripe old age.

But, overall, the bears are coming back. That's something to salute.