Main Index Pablo Honey The Bends OK Computer Kid A Amnesiac Hail to the Thief In Rainbows The King of Limbs A Moon Shaped Pool Thom Yorke Jonny Greenwood Ed O'Brien Colin Greenwood Philip Selway
Stanley and Thom drew a cartoon about genetically 'modified bears', that appeared in radiohead.com, which is the result of an temporary obsession about genetic engineering (you can view the whole cartoon here). Note that 'Dollars And Cents' appears right before 'Hunting Bears' on Amnesiac. As both tracks are related to this story the neighbourhood on the album might be more than coincidence.
Two alternate mixes of 'Hunting Bears' can be found in the files for the Kid A Mnesia Exhibition released in 2019. Both are double the length of the album version and feature more noise and instrumentation, including drums in the second half. One of the versions features a guitar line from 'In Limbo' and has more brash synths, while the other is more subdued.
The name of the track comes from the children's book "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" by Michael Rosen, and references to the book appeared on the band's website. One such piece of text appeared in the Kid A era version of radiohead.com under the title 'FAX MORE FEAR':

 

WE'RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT.

We're going hunting for bears. La la la we're not scared. 3.15 am driving back from a party in New York in a black stretch limousine. Up ahead we see a pool of black liquid and a bundle on 42nd Street, in the middle of the deserted road. As we came close we heard a woman screaming and crying. A few passers-by had stopped to look. The black pool was a negro man's blood pouring like a tap from a hole in the side of his head. The driver slowed up as we drove past and I think I saw the sprawled body spasm as the blood pumped out of the bullet hole. We drove on in silence listening to the woman's scream dying away in the distance. We called the NYPD on the mobile in the back of the limo and drove back to the hotel in silence. We're going hunting for bears. La la la. We're not scared.

 

Q: "There's a song on Amnesiac called 'Hunting Bears', and Radiohead also have their "blinkybear" band logo. Why the obsession with bears?"

Thom: "Er, if I remember rightly, it stemmed initially from a deep paranoia of genetic engineering. And then from a children's book. You know: creating monsters, only to awaken one morning to the terrible truth that there is nothing at all you can do to stop them. We're over it now."
This is another related page, titled 'not scared':








theyll eat you if you misbehave
they live on an island out to sea
they will chew you up
and spit out your bones
we live on the beach
with all their rubbish
and people
bears
giant bears
they will eat me and you
run back to the house before they catch us
wee hee hee cant catch me
were going on a bear hunt.

 

'Hunting Bears' was not performed during the second half of touring for In Rainbows.
Live performances #23 and #24 during the touring for The King of Limbs:
Live performances #25 and #26 during the touring for The King of Limbs:
  2016 A Moon Shaped Pool tour may 2016 06/2016 july 2016 august 2016 sept./oct. 2016
Pyramid Song [12] 23 27 03 02 27 29 31 06 08 20 03 07
You and Whose Army? [4] 20 26 01 04
Hunting Bears [3] 21 01 04
Like Spinning Plates [2] 28 08