Another rule that I didn’t see mentioned, and now I want Stranger’s take on it, is to let the bears hear you coming in bear country. For example, growing up and hiking through berry patches where we might reasonably run into bears given the season and area, the family would all loudly sing songs and make sure everyone knew we were on the way. There were times we hiked with bear bells on our packs, so we were never silent.
So, worth the effort to avoid surprising bears or not?
A bear’s primary sense is smell, and whether they’ll smell you or not depends mostly on whether you are upwind or downwind. Making noise certainly won’t hurt in preventing stumbling upon them unexpected but often bears who are habituated to people, as bears in many parks are, will not be wary of people. However, bears (particularly black bears, which as Bumbershoot noted, actually come in the spectrum of fur colors) rarely approach groups of more than three people,and have never been known to confront groups of six or more.
Stranger
I mentioned it in Post #3.
I don’t know what Stranger’s practice is and will also be interested to hear it, but I whistle or sing every day when I go out to release my hens and when I put them away for the night. Their coop is adjacent to my compost heap and the garden/orchard/berry patch, so a likely spot for an encounter if there is going to be one.
I live with black bears on and around my property and have never had a direct encounter. I find their scat on the lawn areas and even the patio sometimes, nose prints on my vehicles. Never on the windows of my house, happily. Once in awhile I’ll catch a glimpse of one running across the pasture. The game cameras take lots of pics of them.
This time of year is the most likely for an encounter. They’re just coming out of hibernation, hungry and the berries aren’t yet available. They’re less picky about food sources during this time, more out in the open even during the day. They really prefer to not have an encounter with you if it can be avoided. My only real concern is startling a momma with her cubs.
The (ranger-specific) advice I’ve heard recently is not to back away from a bear, but rather to stand your ground, yell and wave your arms (this apparently most applies to black bears).
Of course, I became aware of this after an experience in the Grand Tetons where I swung back onto a trail after a stopover and came face to face with a black bear (with cubs in the background). After about a second of meaningful eye contact I did an about-face and walked in the opposite direction (not running, but not exactly meandering either). After establishing distance I looked back and the bear and her cubs were contentedly rooting around near the path for something tasty, paying me no mind.
Bears are unpredictable. Best to carry a strong antibear spray and avoid trails where there are frequent sightings.
A friend of mine went backpacking in the Yosemite high country with two friends and lost all their food to bears. I don’t remember how their packs were stowed the first night but one was easy pickings. The second night they were tied high up in trees and the second was lost to a tree climber. Then the third night they suspended the last pack on a line between two trees, then stayed up to watch. They figured they were going to lose it but were curious how. It took two bears, one to climb the too-skinny tree and make it bend so the pack came withing reach of the second bear waiting on the ground. “We had to leave, then 'cause the food was gone.”
Another friend was camping on the valley floor and at dusk a bear came wandering through, looking this way and that until some idiot started chasing it. Within an instant half of the camp (the male half, I assume) was chasing the bear for quite a few seconds until the bear realized, Wait a minute! I’m the bear!, skidded to a stop, and turned. Panic ensued. “It was a good thing the bear was docile because I was totally helpless laughing me ass off.”
Bears aren’t really that unpredictable although they can be surprisingly stealthy and fast for such large, seemingly lumbering animals. Defense of cubs is a trait of brown bears; the North American black bear sow does not show aggresion in defense of cubs and instead when it feels threatened will bark at cubs to climb a tree because killing cubs is how a male bear will put a sow in estrus.
From the North American Bear Center, Myths & Misconceptions:
*Untrue. This is one of the biggest misconceptions about black bears. Mother black bears are highly unlikely to attack people in defense of cubs.
Details: Defense of cubs against people is mainly by grizzly bears—not black bears. There is no record of a black bear mother killing anyone in defense of cubs. Mothers with cubs were involved in only 3 of the 61 killings by black bears across America since 1900, and none of those killings appeared to be in defense of cubs. Black bears have less need to defend cubs because they live in the forest where cubs can climb trees. Mothers with cubs remain near trees and are cautious by nature, having evolved alongside the powerful predators of the North American Ice Age.*
Stranger
:eek:
Chimpanzees and cats do the same thing. If you’ve had semi-feral farms cats you’ve probably seen toms stalking and killing kittens for that reason. It’s a pretty common trait in Order Carnivora.
Stranger
The only reliable method for storing food in bear country is a bear canister. Bears have figured out all the other methods of hanging food, or people are notoriously bad at hanging food properly. It’s a bit of a pain to carry the canisters, but it saves lives (human and bear) and trips in the long run. There are other precautions to take, but this is the starting point.
I sort of remember reading about that–but I always thought it was for some sort of longe range (evolutionary) breeding strategy by the individual selfish male organism to kill male offspring.
I figure that is not ruled out with this new fact (to me) of equal-opportunity gender killing and actually stimulating estrus. Might as well get the show on the road.
Once you get used to carrying them, bear canisters aren’t even that difficult and can be quite convenient. They can be used as a camp stool or table, you don’t have to repeatedly hang and retrieve food bags, and the food and packaging you pull out is replaced by the waste that goes back in, or you can stick odds and ends in the not dull canister to keep them handy and reduce pack volume. And it prevents bugs and rodents from getting into your food. If you backpack frequently its a one time expense that will last for decades (longer than most packs, anyway), and if you only backpack occasionally you can rent them from many park ranger stations or outdoor equipment stores for a nominal fee. (At one point REI was renting them for $5/week, and you could buy the canister and guse your fee as a discount.)
Other than the modest amount of weight and the unavoidable bulk, food canisters are not an inconvenience and should be carried anywhere that bears or other foraging animals may be encountered. Keep bears from being habituatied to feeding off of careless hikers and they’ll cease to be a nuisence.
Stranger
That was probably the last guy down the trail. :eek:
Wait. I think we’re missing the crucial fact in this thread. Now, I’m just a city boy - LA, Chicago and Washington, DC mostly - and am pretty unlearned about the wild. I did live for seven years out in the Blue Ridge surrounded by woods but when I had a bear encounter they consisted mostly of seeing bear butts receding into the distance.
Still, the primary question we’ve missed is…
“Playing dead WORKS?”
How the hell does making oneself defenseless against a large predator work? I thought that was just some Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd routine.
Seriously? For reals? Please lighten the ignorance of a man more comfortable in a rough downtown than Yosemite.
“Playing dead” is supposed to prevent stimulating the supposed-prey response. However, black and even brown bears are not primary predators, and the most pretending to be dead does is make them less likely to lash out in defensive action. In my personal opinion you are nearly always better fighting and convincing the animal that you aren’t worth the trouble. But again, most bears are not going to deliberately approach you unless they’ve been previous habituated, and most won’t bother you unless you pose some kind of potential threat.
Stranger
With black bears, the aggressive prey instinct is pretty low. They are omnivores, very little of their food comes from prey. Fighting back (as a last resort) will hopefully convince them to go elsewhere. They aren’t interested in you as a meal, and if you give them a reason to leave they usually will.
Grizzlies are just too big, fast, and aggressive. Your chance of fighting back is essentially null unless you have a large caliber firearm, good aim, and some luck. Fighting back just makes them all the more interested in completing the attack until you are dead. Playing dead short circuits that instinctive response and the hope is that they just bat you around a little and move on. You’re suppose to assume a fetal position, protect your head and neck, and just wait it out.
Polar bears have been known to stalk and kill humans without eating their prey or without them feeling threatened. Not sure what is recommended there. Prayer?
We should make a list of when playing dead works.
I’ll start: Dogs? (Wolves also I guess, but we don’t frequent the same social circles.)
It has been said that, to tell the difference between a black bear and a grizzly, you should walk up to it and kick it in the caboose. If it is a black bear, it will climb a tree. If it’s a grizzly, you will.
The National Park Rangers are advising hikers in Glacier National Park and other Rocky Mountain parks to be alert for bears and take extra precautions to avoid an encounter.
They advise park visitors to wear little bells on their clothes so they make noise when hiking. The bell noise allows bears to hear them coming from a distance and not be startled by a hiker accidentally sneaking up on them. This might cause a bear to charge.
Visitors should also carry a pepper spray can just in case a bear is encountered. Spraying the pepper into the air will irritate the bear’s sensitive nose and it will run away.
It is also a good idea to keep an eye out for fresh bear scat so you have an idea if bears are in the area. People should be able to recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear scat.
Black bear droppings are smaller and often contain berries, leaves, and possibly bits of fur. Grizzly bear droppings tend to contain small bells and smell of pepper.
copy and pasted from: Watch For Bears Joke
Go around a polar bear with a companion who is slower and less agile than you. Problem solved!
Stranger
Take your biggest alligator with you. Bears are afraid of big alligators.