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What To Do If You Encounter
a Bear
The first thing is to relax. Your odds of winning the lottery
or getting struck by lightning are much higher then being
mauled by a bear -- let alone killed.
Depending on your location and altitude, bears can be active
from as early as late February through to November and December.
In early Spring bears are aggressive due to bulking up after
the long winter hibernation. In late summer be cautious of
mother bears with young cubs. And in the early fall they start
bulking up for the winter hibernation.
The best way to prevent being a target for an angry bear
is to educate yourself. Most attacks occur because of simply
reacting wrong when you encounter one.
Here is a rough plan for prevention of a bear encounter:
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Notify a friend or relative when and where
you will be going. |
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If you enter a property that has a register,
use it. This will also give clues to your
whereabouts. |
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Travel in groups. |
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Wear a pack if you are hiking in the woods.
You can sacrifice it for diversion. |
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When hiking you should make a lot of noise
to alert bears of your presence. This
is very important in dense vegetation or forest, where
the trail turns, bends, or
rises, around rivers, lakes and streams, or in thermal
areas. Bells, whistles, clap
ping or loud talking are all excellent ways to alert bears.
On windy days the
bears acute sense of smell can work against them. If you
are coming upwind on
a trail (the wind is blowing in your face) you should
be especially careful of surprising a bear as you scent
will be masked and your sound muffled by the wind. |
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Do not wear perfume or use scented products.
The flowery and sweet smells in
perfume and common household products like deodorant can
attract bears. |
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Make sure any food you pack with you is
stored in well sealed plastic bags and
does not have a strong odor. |
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If you stop for a break make sure you pick
up any food you may drop. Not only
does this follow "Leave No Trace" protocol,
it discourages a wandering bear to find
the rest of the food source. |
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Menstruating women should wear tampons while
in the wilderness. |
If that didn’t work and you just found yourself
in the wrong place at the wrong time... choices that you make
over the next 60 seconds could save your life.
Follow these steps if you encounter a bear:
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You first need to size up what kind of bear
it is-and STAY CALM. Is it a sow with
cubs, or a lone male foraging for something to eat. Does
the bear even acknowledge your presence? |
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Continue to be calm. Animals can sense fear.
If you start yelling, they may take
it a threat. |
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Do not make any sudden moves or loud noise
on the immediate encounter. If
you are in a group you should grab on to each others hands
to make yourselves
look larger and slowly move backwards. If the bear does
not seem to be aware
or care about your presence continue to move backwards
NEVER turning your
back on the bear. You should return from the direction
you can from after
moving at least three-hundred feet away. |
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Do not run or let anyone run in your group
when you spot a bear. Running is a
basic, "fight or flight" instinct ingrained
in all animals including humans. Running
from a bear can trigger a hunting instinct. You will never,
ever, even on your
best day outrun a bear. |
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Do not attempt to navigate backcountry around
the bear |
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After moving a safe distance you should
also start making a lot of noise. Never
attempt to navigate around cubs. A sow is never far from
her cubs so moving
away in the direction you came from is very important. |
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Do not climb a tree to get away from a bear.
Bears are superb climbers. Some
bears can reach up over 10 feet. They can just swat you
out of the tree you are
attempting to climb. There have been documented cases
of bears knocking trees
over to get humans back down. Remember, a bear can cover
about two-hundred
feet of ground in as little as six seconds. You absolutely
can not climb fast
enough to get away |
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Do not attempt to wade across a stream or
into a lake to avoid a bear. Bears are
excellent swimmers and with four paws on the ground and
four-hundred plus
pounds of bulk, have a much better chance of crossing
fast moving water then
you do. |
If all has gone well, your encounter with the bear should
be over, but if the bear still sees you as a threat and turns
to on his hind legs to show you how big he really is and or
lets out a low gruff sound, he is telling you that he acknowledges
your presence and in turn has made a threat of his own.
If the bear makes a threat of its own:
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If you are in a group hold hands and raise
them slowly above your head, slowly
spread out, and back up at the same time. |
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If you are wearing a pack, slowly move it
off one shoulder. You may need to sacrifice it if things
turn nastier. |
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If you have bear spray slowly get it to
your hand. |
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If the bear should charge STAY CALM. |
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Continue to make noise as a group, hold
hands, arms raised, and hold your
ground. |
Most bears will do a false charge stopping around twenty
to thirty feet away as a show of force. Now is the time to
drop the pack off of the other shoulder and throw it on the
ground toward the bear. The pack on the ground can make a
wonderful diversion. You should NOT use your bear spray at
this point. You need to be very firm with a bear that makes
a false charge. The only exception to this false charge rule
is a sow with cubs. A sow with cubs that feels threatened
has a higher chance of issuing a real charge with an intent
to attack. You should keep this in mind if you see cubs.
As was noted before, the best way to avoid a situation is
to be educated in the way of the bear.
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