Bear spray.

[Vaughn]

I would never carry it in California -- I have close to black bears a few times. I am a tad more wary of Mountain Lions (especially the younger hungry ones looking for an unoccupied territory), but wonder if one would have the warning and/or the time to use pepper spray on a lion.

[Greg Miller]

The only bears to bother carrying bear spray for is Grizzlies. Totally unnecessary for black bears.

[Thad Gerheim]

The only bears to bother carrying bear spray for is Grizzlies. Totally unnecessary for black bears.

This may be true with your passive east coast bears, but not always with bears that see relatively few humans. I would advise against getting between a sow and a cub, not too close to an injured bear and sometimes in a bad year bears just get awful dang hungary for the food that you smeared on your pants. This is especially true in Alaska.

[Vaughn]

Getting between a black bear momma and her cub -- I 'm guessing that pepper spray would not help.

[ROL]

the question both my wife and I asked the clueless clerk was, more importantly to us, "Will it work on the residents of Stanley, Idaho?"

Hey, I resemble that comment, having lived around Stanley for more than 27 years.

Sorry about the painting with a broad brush, but I am still way beyond sensitive about being the subject of corporal assault for having California license plates. The kind of meth fueled, right wing, xenophobia exhibited in central Idaho only makes it a more dangerous place for everyone, and not because of the wildlife. Yeah, not even a little bit funny.

[Greg Miller]

This may be true with your passive east coast bears, but not always with bears that see relatively few humans. I would advise against getting between a sow and a cub, not too close to an injured bear and sometimes in a bad year bears just get awful dang hungary for the food that you smeared on your pants. This is especially true in Alaska.

Just because I live in the east doesn't mean I don't visit the West. I have been close to mother black bears and cub(s) in both the east and the west. In all cases the cub scampers up a tree (or runs straight towards mom) and the mother shows no signs of giving a squat. It is a myth that black bear mothers aggressively defend their cubs. They will only get aggressive if you get aggressive. There are no documented deaths in the continental US from black bear mothers defending their cubs. All deaths are from predatory males (except for one mother and cub who are thought to have attacked strictly to eat the victim).

But there are only 13 deaths from black bears in the continental US since 1960 (and not all of those were even in the wilderness; and 5 of the deaths were in the east or mid-west). You have a higher risk if death from pretty much any other cause that you can think of.

[Greg Miller]

This may be true with your passive east coast bears, but not always with bears that see relatively few humans. I would advise against getting between a sow and a cub, not too close to an injured bear and sometimes in a bad year bears just get awful dang hungary for the food that you smeared on your pants. This is especially true in Alaska.

And for what is is worth, east coast bears are not all passive. There are good sized populations of aggressive bears in places such as the Adirondacks and Smokies - I know from experience and have dealt with them (with no bear spray). But Aggressive does not = dangerous. Aggressive black bears just want food, and in almost all cases does not include human flesh.

[John Kasaian]

While weathered in up in Alaska, I spent a few days reading two volumes documenting contemporaty bear attacks in the western US. It was interesting stuff.
The most attacks were against older outdoors men who had some diminished senses (hearing, vision, smell, that sort of stuff) who "surprised" a momma bear.
The second greatest number were women on their period.
There was no mention of large format cameras.

I've never heard of a Large Format photographer getting eaten by a bear. If anyone has heard or expeienced a bear attack while photograpiung with a large format camera, I'd like to hear about it. Perhaps instead of buying pepper spray tourists should buy Large Format cameras as a hooligan bear repellant?
There could be a whole new window of opportunity here!

[Lachlan 717]

We don't use spray here in Australia.

The sharks swim around it.

The snakes hold their breath while they bite you.

The crocs close their nictitating membrane.

The spiders hide in your boots. If they can stand the smell in these, they can easily stand the spray.

And the only native bear we have here, the Drop Bear (the Koala isn't a bear), has developed immunity to it.

[adelorenzo]

I never take any encounter with a bear lightly, black or grizzly. I try to always carry bear spray and, while I haven't had to use it, I have been very close on a few occasions.

I have to add that some of the responses on this thread are showing a real lack of respect for these animals.