Thomas Reed@thomasareed@infosec.exchange
I’ve had three close bear encounters in the past two months. If you are visiting or living in bear country and don’t know the right way to respond, here are some proactive tips:
1) ALWAYS carry bear spray
2) Make sure the bear spray is accessible within literally one second. Carry it in a belt holster or something similar, and practice drawing it to make sure you can do so quickly
3) Know how to remove the safety mechanism from the bear spray. Practice (carefully!)
4) Keep in mind bear spray expires. The propellant is the problem, so expired bear spray may not actually spray. Replace your bear spray if it’s past the date printed on the can.
5) Don’t go alone if you can help it.
6) Make noise when you’re in bear territory, like talking to a friend or calling “Hey bear!” periodically. (Don’t use bear bells, bears sometimes get curious about those and come investigate. Also, don’t use a Bluetooth speaker for your noise, you’ll be at increased risk of death from fellow hikers!)
7) Have some means for calling for help if you’re not in cell service, like a Garmin capable of sending an SOS signal over satellite
If you do encounter a bear, here are some tips for how to behave:
1) Don’t run! This makes you look like prey, and can trigger a predator response.
2) Pull your bear spray and remove the safety
3) Stay calm. Don’t do anything to agitate the bear. (Some people will tell you to yell and “act big,” and that can work with a black bear, but I wouldn’t start with that. If it comes down to it, bear spray is a better deterrent anyway.)
4) If the bear hasn’t seen you yet and there’s some distance, speak to it, but don’t yell at it.
5) If it hasn’t seen you yet and it’s way too close, that’s a tough call… speaking may startle it, but backing away you may also make noise and startle it. I’d argue for backing away… distance is important. Being in a bear’s personal bubble is bad!
6) If it charges, spray the bear spray lower than you’d expect and make a cloud the bear is going to have to run through. If its face isn’t in the cloud, the bear spray will do you no good
7) If all else fails, get on the ground, face down, and protect your head and neck however you can, and play dead.
I’ve never had to do 6 or 7… the rest of the steps have worked for me in my encounters thus far, including two encounters where I startled the bear.