Bear spray.

[Vaughn]

I photographed a black bear in September with my 4x5 -- he walked into a 45 second exposure, but did not stick around long enough to register on the film. I had a herd of elk do the same thing a long time ago (but using 8x10).

[Brassai]

It is surprising how many of the bear deaths involve hunters. ... A gun shot or two may eventually kill the bear, but not quick enough to save your hide.

Not true. Most hunters that run into grizzlies are after elk. Standard elk rifles will easily drop a bear in its tracks. That said, bear spray is worth carrying and much lighter than a .338 Rem magnum if you aren't hunting.


George B.

[Heroique]

Standard elk rifles will easily drop a bear in its tracks.

By comparison, the Lewis & Clark journals give multiple reports about the Grizzly – each report, during their ascent of the upper Missouri River, quite entertaining and typically accurate.

To be sure, the animal’s ferocity (after being shot) never ceases to astonish them.

They and their men used muzzle-loading Kentucky rifles (whose power was equivalent to, say, a thirty-two caliber Winchester), and time and again, these expert outdoorsmen and hunters report just how many well-placed shots it takes to drop one these enraged beasts. One grizzly was shot 10 times, 5 times through the lungs, before it fell.

L&C certainly recognized their rifles were sufficient for white-tailed deer and black bears back home, but not adequate for Grizzlies. “I must confess that I do not like the gentlemen,” Lewis writes, “and had rather fight two Indians than one bear.”

One wonders what they would have thought about bear spray. ;^)

[Matt Stage]

Have to ask. Do bears get angry about having industrial strength pepper sprayed in their eyes? I have heard that bears are about as smart as dogs. I had a puppy who was pepper sprayed by the mailman. She was a totally harmless 8 month Airedale puppy and had just bounced out the door to meet someone new. The direct hit of pepper gel was all over her face and burned her eyes. Took me hours to clean it off. After that, and for the rest of her days she hated the mailman. Whenever he came by she would get very aggressive and attack any piece of furniture or rug near the door. This was the same for any mail carrier, but she had no problem with the UPS or Fedex guys. So will the bears associate pepper spray with hikers and become more aggressive towards them by association?

[Steve Smith]

Humans violating the bear's territory? I think the bear has more right to kill the human than the other way round.


Steve.

[Heroique]

So will the bears associate pepper spray with hikers and become more aggressive towards them by association?

Matt, that’s a sad story about your Airedale puppy.

I don’t have an answer to your question – but may be able to offer a few related remarks...

Grizzlies are intelligent & independent – certainly smarter than black bears, and probably smarter than clever dogs. To be sure, their intelligence makes it difficult to predict their behavior. Some grizzlies who are victims of pepper spray (or gun shot wounds) might be smart enough to avoid future encounters w/ humans; others might be smart enough to stalk and successfully “rid” their territory of their aggressors. Still other grizzlies might switch between the two behaviors, depending on experience, mood, and whim – on what they’re “thinking” at the moment. It’s a fascinating animal, worthy of our reverence.

[Michael Lloyd]

I spent a couple of weeks in Grand Teton NP with a couple of friends of mine back in June. One carried spray, one didn't. One morning we hiked a couple of miles into the "woods" to photograph an owl nest and it's occupants (twins). On the return trip we spotted a fresh (steaming) pile of bear scat. That was a little unnerving. The non bear spray carrying friend put the bear spray carrying friend in the lead I didn't see any bells in the scat by the way.

During my June visit to GTNP I found that it was orders of magnitude more enjoyable to photograph anything but bear and moose. The zoo that ensues when 399 or 610 appear is nauseating. The disrespect that some of the local photographers show for the rangers is hard to believe. On the day that I left I got a call that one of two orphaned cubs, named Brownie and Ash, had been run over by a motorist and killed. The bear was in sage brush, not on the road. I don't recall which one it was or what the circumstances were. Many times I saw people driving well over the speed limit so it's not surprising that someone went "off road" and ran over a cub. Sad but not surprising.

At few years ago I had a plan to camp in the YSNP back country but that fell through. During the process of investigating bear proof containers, bear spray, and other bear-isms I came across a few articles on the internet (you can't put anything on the internet if it's not true, right?) that stated the Black Bear was more prone to track a human walking through the woods, out of curiosity, than a grizzly bear is. They, allegedly, are more curious.

I think that if I were headed to the back country I would carry bear spray. If I was photographing in the roadside zoo that is GTNP in the summer I would not. The rangers and brigade seem to do a remarkable job of maintaining order. Here in TX we have limited population of black bears in Big Bend NP and to my knowledge there have been no attacks from them. The mountain lions will occasionally act up but what do you expect from a cat?

Timothy Treadwell knew grizzly bears inside and out. I don't think he had bear spray...

For the past 30 + years. I hiked and camped in the backcountry in or near Grand Teton National Park (worked on the adjacent Targhee and Bridger-Teton National Forest), climbed in the Tetons almost every week, and occasionally in the Wind River's. Over this time, the grizzlies have spread south along the Teton Range, and they are now common everywhere in the Tetons.

Two summers ago, a women riding her bike in Teton Valley (near Victor, Idaho) was chased by a grizzly. Last summer, a hiker was mauled by a black bear on the fringe of the Teton west slope, but without going into details, it was his fault. There were close calls with grizzlies too; most involved loose dogs that harassed the bear and ran back to the owner.

Despite being out in the woods alone 6 or 7 days a week all summer, I did not start carrying bear spray until a last summer when my employer sort of required it. It's not a macho thing -- for many years, bear spray was not available so I was not in the habit of carrying it. Also, I think paying attention is more important than feeling safer with a gun or pepper spray.

I have only been close (<100 feet) to one grizzly bear in the Grand Teton NP, and I saw him first and it was easy to get around him (it was a huge boar).

As for black bear encounters, I have been closer than 10 feet to 4 or 5 of them (so much for "paying attention" being more important). Two of these encounters were with sow & cub. One pair was sleeping (I heard soft breathing, but did not realize what it was until the mother stood up and the cub ran up a tree right next to me), and the other was during sun-rise and I could not see the bears (blinded) until I got close. The others were "round a corner and there it is". One other passed through camp on his way from one whitebark pine tree to another, paying me no apparent mind. None of these encounters involved bear aggression, and I did not have to yell or anything like that before the situation resolved itself. I would not have used bear spray in any of these situations.

The point is, if one spends enough time out there, you will run into a bear, but the chances are low and consequences are in your favor. Also, I am too lazy to make purposeful noise, so I probably encounter more bears because of that.

But as Mickey Mantle said in later life, "Don't be like me". It does not hurt to carry bear spray, and it helps bear conservation -- a bear that runs away, rather than hurting a person, is less apt to be "removed" from the population by bear managers.

By the way, grizzlies are still rare in the Wind Rivers, mostly in the north, and the "grizzly circus" at the Cirque of the Towers (and nearby Big Sandy Lake) has involved black bears as far as I know; they are historically pesky there.

[Thad Gerheim]

Even if human fatalities by black bears are extremely unlikely, proper food handling should be observed out of respect for the bears. As some say, a fed bear is a dead bear. This site has some good information about camping and hiking, although I think some of it is being overly cautious. http://www.americanbear.org/awarenes...ng-hiking.html In the encounters I had, I never felt that the bear wanted to attack me, he wanted my food. The encounter I had in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness was thirty miles from the trailhead I came in on, I was by myself in November. One should be careful.

[adelorenzo]

Not true. Most hunters that run into grizzlies are after elk. Standard elk rifles will easily drop a bear in its tracks. That said, bear spray is worth carrying and much lighter than a .338 Rem magnum if you aren't hunting.

George you should read the links to the studies I posed a few pages back. The truth is it is almost impossible to 'drop a bear in its tracks' while being charged and that a gun of any size does not make you statistically safer in a bear encounter.

Have you ever shot a bear or any large animal?

[Drew Wiley]

Well there is a time-tested spray that nature itself has perfected: you can always carry
a live skunk!