Thanks, Sublight. Best laugh I’ve had all week!
My parents were camping in the Marble Mountains in California years ago, and a brown bear came into the campsite in the middle of the night.
My mom beat on pots & pans and shouted at it to go away. It worked. Bear in mind (no pun intended) that this was in the summer, when food is more plentiful. Also, my mom is a real beeyotch.
I need to reiterate the in my experience part of my opinion, and go one step further. I am wary of black bears because they are more agile and able to climb, and I have heard of more black bear maulings than I have of Kodiak/grizzly maulings, including the consumption of parts of the person being mauled. At the same time I am happy living on this island because we don’t have moose, and they are another frightening animal. The state wide news endlessly showed the video of a moose stomping a man into jelly several years back at UAF. My position is that I have lived for many years in Kodiak bear country, I have frequently been yards, feet, and once inches away from a Kodiak and come to no harm. I have been charged, and I would neither consider pepper spray an adequate deterrent against a Kodiak, nor a good idea. I will go further and say that, in my opinion, one could conceivably irritate a bear, which probably would have otherwise walked away after a couple of false charges, into a full on charge.
My point is that bears are apex predators as a species, at least the three types we have here in Alaska. Being omnivores, feeding on grubs, grasses, roots and the like early in the season, concentrating on salmon during the summer, and finishing off the season with berries and carrion (and, unfortunately, garbage for those bears who have become accustomed to a free and easy feed at the landfill and out of dumpsters). There is nothing going after bears beside each other and Man. When it comes to an encounter with a Kodiak, it’s best to do whatever is needed to allow the bear to pass and retain it’s dignity; all it really wants to do is go on it bear-y way. It is very rarely advisable to not let a bear become aware of your presence well in advance of an encounter, as a startled bear has lost it’s dignity. When given the opportunity a bear will alter it’s course in order to avoid contact with a human, providing that the human is not packing meat or fish, etc.
I brought Treadwell into the discussion because, in his own stupid way, he proved that Kodiaks/grizzlies are not by nature raving aggressive man eaters. Again, Tim’s mistake was being so cocksure and arrogant that he turned a small incident in the Kodiak airport into a huge freak out scene and in a pique had his pilot take them (Tim and Amy) back to the bear maze. In October. The bears he had become acquainted with over several years had headed up country, and the lone bear remaining was starving. It looked wary in the videotape, but there comes a time in a starving animal’s life when death is staring in it’s face, and at that time all bets are off. Pepper spray isn’t going to deter that bear, and it’s going to take more than one or two well placed shots from a large calibre weapon to bring the animal down.
I have personally known bears which frequented the village for several years well enough to learn their personalities and to know just how far to push each encounter. The sow with two cubs I mentioned previously I had almost daily encounters with, so when we simultaneously looked in/out my window with perhaps four inches of air space separating our noses and her cubs at her heels I was scared spitless, but when I managed to suck air and shout at her, she left. She knew me, I knew her, neither of us had ever behaved aggressively toward one another nor each other’s cubs, if you will allow me that stretch. When my husband came home, he expressed empathy toward the bear, and his people have lived with the Kodiak for centuries!
My answer to the OP is that playing dead should not be the first option used. I have seen pepper spray give Outsiders a false sense of security when heading out into the Bush.The same goes for weapons; if a person has a bear permit drawn and is travelling with a Master Guide and an adequately armed hunting party, generally there will be no serious injuries to the humans. On the other hand, if a hunting party is going out after Sitka Blacktail Deer, Dall Sheep, Mountain Goat or Elk, it’s a good idea to have at least two members with large calibre weapons and the nerve to hold and shoot when and if it becomes critical. Running is not advisable unless you have a close, secure destination right at hand. Kodiaks are faster than you would think looking at their bulk. Oh, and that old myth about them not being able to run with grace, speed and agility downhill is just that, a myth. Try to defer to them, if that doesn’t work do what you can to be as big and noisy as you can and call their bluff, and if the fetal position is your final option cover you guts and the back of your neck and prepared to be chewed, batted, carried and buried.
Also, I am not going to tell the gore stories. The man was not stable, his instability cost the lives of two human beings and an untold amount of bears which have been killed in the aftermath. On Tim’s account people put themselves in a position of danger while collecting what they could of his and Amy’s remains, and to hunt and kill the bears believed responsible. Tim also gave the impression to many people that the Kodiak bear’s reputation was undeserved, and undoubtedly there will be Tim-wannabe’s in the future. Those of us privy to these details mostly prefer to refrain from passing the lurid and macabre around like a bowl of party peanuts. It is truly the stuff of nightmares, and it seems a sacrilege to diminish the deaths of man and bear alike. I love bears, I respect bears, and I do my best to not find myself in a stupid (on my part) situation.
I’d like to say, for the record, that I’ve never unprovokedly attacked, maimed, mauled, killed, disfigured or consumed any human.
That’s my story… and I’m sticking to it.
In the paper yesterday there was a classic example of when to make noise and when to play dead.
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/wildlife/bears/story/8021983p-7914996c.html
The article is longer, I didn’t have to register to read it, and there are a lot of bear encounters happening all over the state being reported right now, particularly as the fish run has been slow this season, and both people and bears are competeing for the fish.