How to Avoid and Survive a Bear Attack
Anywhere bears roam brings the potential that you could run into one. Likely candidates for an introduction with these super-smart meat eaters include the unsuspecting camper, hiker, maybe even late-season snowboarder if you’re really unlucky. Spring is coming, and that means plenty of weekend getaways to the great outdoors. If you’re anywhere near bear country–Yellowstone national park, Montana mountain country, a hole in the fence at your local zoo–you should know how to avoid becoming a target for the biggest predator in the woods. Read more after the jump on how to keep the claws off your face–and your gear.
The facts about bears are simple. The most important things you should know are:
- Bears are always hungry
- Bears have a powerful sense of smell
- Bears learn very quickly where sources of food are and gravite to them
- Bears will eat damn near anything from smelly carcasses to peanut butter cups
Bear watching from a distance is fun and for the most part, safe. There’s an exception to this. If you attract a bear by having exposed or unwrapped food, you’re in for trouble. Don’t eat or drink when you can see bears in the distance. Even if they are very far away, the old “better safe than sorry” adage has maximum effectiveness here.
See that look of curiosity on the bear’s face in the picture above? That is NOT the expression you want pointed at YOU. To keep this bear from wanting to check you out, consider the following:
- Campers should seal, bag, and/or bury food-related trash far from camp. Keep the scent of your food out of the air and bears won’t have anything to lure them to another meal.
- Keep a camp fire going even after you’ve eaten. Animals don’t like fire and the fear of flames often overpowers the urge to eat whatever you’re cooking.
- Hikers should be very noisy in the forest. Stealthy, quiet movements make you look like the kind of animal a bear is used to chasing, killing, and eating.
- Never wear perfume, cologne, or makeup in a known bear habitat. That stuff smells like food.
If you do attract a bear’s attention, do NOT run. Creatures that run away get killed and eaten. In the bear’s mind, if it ACTS like food, it IS food. If you are in a group, you need to gather to make yourself look like a much larger mass than you are individually. This trigger’s the bear’s survival instincts, and if you look like a fight rather than easy prey, you may be left alone. If you need to escape, the safest thing to do is to climb high in a tree so the bear cannot reach you. You may sit and wait the better part of a day, but the bear should lose interest eventually.
Can you battle a bear mano a mano? Believe it or not, yes. Your weapon of choice should be a specially designed, super-powerful Bear Repellent pepper spray. It’s sold online and in hunting and fishing shops wherever there’s a need. The key to using this spray?
- Don’t panic. Panicky people wind up spraying themselves.
- Stick your arm straight out and give the bear a long blast directly in the face.
- Move out of range quickly and climb a tree. High up. This bear is now REALLY PISSED.
It’s true that you can shoot a bear, but small caliber handgun or rifle fire may not stop a bear from getting to you. A .44 Magnum will stop a bear dead in its tracks. Do you own one? If you find yourself in need of shooting a bear to survive, aim for center mass and keep firing until the bear stops moving. You may face the music under the endangered species act depending on your target, but a fine is better than permanent residence in a pine box.
And that’s basically it. We certainly hope you never need to take the more serious advice listed here, but we hope you DO remember to always use caution with food, perfume, and your own behavior to avoid attracting a bear’s attention. They make great souvenir photo subjects, but they suck at shaking hands.
