“If it’s black, fight back. If it’s brown, lie down.”
That’s shortened to the point of being useless and leaves out all parts that actually matter.
First of all, there are black grizzlies and brown “Black bears” and the sizes of the species overlap. It may be hard to identify a bear that’s coming at you.
Here’s what you should do: Carry bear spray whenever you’re in bear country!
When you encounter a bear close up, stand still, take out your pepper spray (or anything you can use as a weapon) and start talking to it calmly. Let it know you’re a human and neither aggressive nor afraid. Ask it how its day is going!
If it backs down, you walk backwards slowly till it’s out of sight, then find a different route.
If it stops, advances or charges, you stand still, facing it. Don’t run or climb a tree.
Most charges are mock charges where it’ll stop before you.
Lying down might sometimes be better if it’s a Grizzly, depending on its reason for attacking you, but there’s no way you can know that. Chances are, after its first slap you’re lying down anyway.
Just saw this in some Netflix movie, but for wolves. Typical world ended dystopia and they were being chased by a pack of wolves or wild dogs or something. The evil leader has a limp so they’re building suspense as you’re hoping the bad guy will be taken out …… until he shoots one of his followers so he can hobble faster than the injured woman.
Just want to add, because as an outdoorsy guy in Pennsylvania, I’m a little dumbfounded by how many people seem to think we might have brown/grizzly bears in our neck of the woods.
There aren’t. If you’re reading this, odds are pretty good that you don’t live in brown bear country, because you’re probably in an English-speaking country, and just going by numbers you’re probably not in the parts of western Canada, Alaska, or the tiny part of the Continental US (mostly just Yellowstone) where they can be found.
Everywhere else in North America it’s black bears (or polar bears, but I really hope you don’t need help identifying those, and maybe a handful of grizzly-polar bear hybrids)
If you’re in Europe you have brown or polar bears.
If you’re in Asia, you have a few species with a bit of overlap- brown, polar, panda, sun, and 2 or 3 other species I don’t remember off the top of my head.
If you’re in the Andes, you got spectacled bears.
If you’re anywhere else in the world, read the sign by the cage because you’re in a zoo.
Also, I have never encountered a black bear that didn’t immediately fuck off the moment it noticed me. There are certainly bolder ones out there, and you should always take any reasonable precautions, but when I’m camping and hiking, bears are basically at the bottom of my list of concerns, squirrels, chipmunks, mice, etc. generally rank higher, I’ve had chipmunks try to get into my pack while I was sitting there watching it.
All my years of camping I’ve had exactly 1 incident with a bear back when I was in scouts, and it happened when we were all away from camp, it got into a box of cookware, and I suspect it probably immediately scared itself away when the pots and pans went clattering everywhere.
My experience with black bears as well. They fuck off as soon as they see you.
Grizzlies seemed more annoyed, like “Why’s there a human in my woods? I just wanna chill.”
So depending on their mood, they’ll usually check you out, maybe try to get you to fuck off, and failing that, grudgingly walk away.
I actually missed the number one protection against bear (and cougar) attacks in my post:
Have a hiking partner and talk to them. Or sing to yourself.
That reduces the chance of even encountering a bear by a lot cause they hear you coming and avoid you well in advance.
The drawback is you won’t get to see a bear.
Our bear safety trainer actually said step 1 in a bear encounter is: Take out your camera.
It puts you in a more reasonable mindset, cause almost no encounters lead to attacks. And you can take some sweet pictures.
I had a friend from the UK who planned on biking across Canada (never happened). He asked what animals he should be scared of. It wasnt the bears. Its moose.
They look goofy as fuck, yes. But they can be aggressive for seemingly no reason and fuck you up real quick. Theyre big, heavy, strong, and have a fucking weapon strapped to their head.
Find cover. A big tree or big rock.
Use your small size and better maneuverability to keep the cover between you and the moose.
Move from cover to cover to create distance.
If there’s no cover, run like hell. Moose are faster than you, but they often stop after a short distance.
This reminds me of a story from a friend of mine who lived in Canada…he sent me texts with his car completely fucked in the middle of a two lane highway with no other cars or trees around… I asked what the hell did he hit, his response is that a moose had crashed into him, got up and just left. The entire passager side of the car looked like it had been smashed in by a big truck.
That was the day I learned that a moose is something you do not fuck with.
You’re posting in English, so odds are you’re in an English speaking country
There’s obviously non-native speakers here, but the majority of people using English language sites are usually gonna be from an English speaking country
In the other 2%, fight for your life. Aim for the nose. Good Luck!
I mean, I guess, yeah, that’s what you should try. But I’d like to point out that whoever it was Romans or whatnot who used to pit bears against lions and they got bored of the matchup because the bears always won. And those won’t have even been grizzlys, but likely European brown bears.
But yah guess one could get lucky and it’s not like not-fighting will help either,
“If it’s black, fight back. If it’s brown, lie down.”
That’s shortened to the point of being useless and leaves out all parts that actually matter.
First of all, there are black grizzlies and brown “Black bears” and the sizes of the species overlap. It may be hard to identify a bear that’s coming at you.
Here’s what you should do: Carry bear spray whenever you’re in bear country!
When you encounter a bear close up, stand still, take out your pepper spray (or anything you can use as a weapon) and start talking to it calmly. Let it know you’re a human and neither aggressive nor afraid. Ask it how its day is going!
If it backs down, you walk backwards slowly till it’s out of sight, then find a different route.
If it stops, advances or charges, you stand still, facing it. Don’t run or climb a tree.
Most charges are mock charges where it’ll stop before you.
If it doesn’t stop and gets within 20 feet, shoot your bear spray, which resolves 98% of bear attacks without injury:
https://irp.cdn-website.com/01d676b7/files/uploaded/Tom_Smith_Research_Report___Efficacy_of_Bear_Spray_(1).pdf In the other 2%, fight for your life. Aim for the nose. Good Luck!
Lying down might sometimes be better if it’s a Grizzly, depending on its reason for attacking you, but there’s no way you can know that. Chances are, after its first slap you’re lying down anyway.
Source: worked as a ranger in British Columbia
Similar but also not at all relevant.
The saying goes “if it’s brown flush it down. If it’s yellow let it mellow”
Always run faster than the guy with the broken leg!
You will need a bay. Just saying. Legs don’t just break themselves.
Just saw this in some Netflix movie, but for wolves. Typical world ended dystopia and they were being chased by a pack of wolves or wild dogs or something. The evil leader has a limp so they’re building suspense as you’re hoping the bad guy will be taken out …… until he shoots one of his followers so he can hobble faster than the injured woman.
Just want to add, because as an outdoorsy guy in Pennsylvania, I’m a little dumbfounded by how many people seem to think we might have brown/grizzly bears in our neck of the woods.
There aren’t. If you’re reading this, odds are pretty good that you don’t live in brown bear country, because you’re probably in an English-speaking country, and just going by numbers you’re probably not in the parts of western Canada, Alaska, or the tiny part of the Continental US (mostly just Yellowstone) where they can be found.
Everywhere else in North America it’s black bears (or polar bears, but I really hope you don’t need help identifying those, and maybe a handful of grizzly-polar bear hybrids)
If you’re in Europe you have brown or polar bears.
If you’re in Asia, you have a few species with a bit of overlap- brown, polar, panda, sun, and 2 or 3 other species I don’t remember off the top of my head.
If you’re in the Andes, you got spectacled bears.
If you’re anywhere else in the world, read the sign by the cage because you’re in a zoo.
Also, I have never encountered a black bear that didn’t immediately fuck off the moment it noticed me. There are certainly bolder ones out there, and you should always take any reasonable precautions, but when I’m camping and hiking, bears are basically at the bottom of my list of concerns, squirrels, chipmunks, mice, etc. generally rank higher, I’ve had chipmunks try to get into my pack while I was sitting there watching it.
All my years of camping I’ve had exactly 1 incident with a bear back when I was in scouts, and it happened when we were all away from camp, it got into a box of cookware, and I suspect it probably immediately scared itself away when the pots and pans went clattering everywhere.
My experience with black bears as well. They fuck off as soon as they see you.
Grizzlies seemed more annoyed, like “Why’s there a human in my woods? I just wanna chill.”
So depending on their mood, they’ll usually check you out, maybe try to get you to fuck off, and failing that, grudgingly walk away.
I actually missed the number one protection against bear (and cougar) attacks in my post:
Have a hiking partner and talk to them. Or sing to yourself.
That reduces the chance of even encountering a bear by a lot cause they hear you coming and avoid you well in advance.
The drawback is you won’t get to see a bear.
Our bear safety trainer actually said step 1 in a bear encounter is: Take out your camera.
It puts you in a more reasonable mindset, cause almost no encounters lead to attacks. And you can take some sweet pictures.
What about a moose?
I had a friend from the UK who planned on biking across Canada (never happened). He asked what animals he should be scared of. It wasnt the bears. Its moose.
They look goofy as fuck, yes. But they can be aggressive for seemingly no reason and fuck you up real quick. Theyre big, heavy, strong, and have a fucking weapon strapped to their head.
Do. Not. Fuck. With. The. Moose.
Find cover. A big tree or big rock.
Use your small size and better maneuverability to keep the cover between you and the moose.
Move from cover to cover to create distance.
If there’s no cover, run like hell. Moose are faster than you, but they often stop after a short distance.
This reminds me of a story from a friend of mine who lived in Canada…he sent me texts with his car completely fucked in the middle of a two lane highway with no other cars or trees around… I asked what the hell did he hit, his response is that a moose had crashed into him, got up and just left. The entire passager side of the car looked like it had been smashed in by a big truck.
That was the day I learned that a moose is something you do not fuck with.
A bull moose weighs up to 1600 pounds and is designed for repeated frontal collisions with another 1600 pound moose.
Title of your sex tape? There’s a joke in there somewhere…
Heard that, run (hopefully for cover)! Thank you, and I hope never to utilize that knowledge
A moose bit my sister once
Mynd you, m00se bites Kan be pretty nasti…
Why should I be in an English speaking country? There are lots of people here ;)
You’re posting in English, so odds are you’re in an English speaking country
There’s obviously non-native speakers here, but the majority of people using English language sites are usually gonna be from an English speaking country
Well, I’m not from an English speaking country and I’m not the only one. So info about brown bears can be relevant :)
I mean, I guess, yeah, that’s what you should try. But I’d like to point out that whoever it was Romans or whatnot who used to pit bears against lions and they got bored of the matchup because the bears always won. And those won’t have even been grizzlys, but likely European brown bears.
But yah guess one could get lucky and it’s not like not-fighting will help either,
I’m just picturing somebody talking to a bear as if it understands what they’re asking.
Meanwhile in Finland
The Winter War [Colorized]
That’s not what I would call „talking calmly“. Not even asked how his day is going!
But I admit the „you should be sleeping“ got me.