Bear spray.

[Graybeard]

My wife and I have encountered black bears three times now-

Once on the Appalacian Trail in Shenandoah NP - a sow with two cubs - strictly speaking, the south end of three bears running north very quickly.

Twice in the Adirondacks; once a skinny juvenile walking away from a dumpster in Long Lake (NY) and a second time a different teenager walking along a parallel trail a hundred yards from he one which we were on north of Speculator (also NY). Neither one seem the least concerned with out presence. When we backpack or canoe camp, the food goes up in a tree at the end of a line and we clean the fish a long way from the camp.

[Drew Wiley]

Well consider the source, Roger. Guess you could do a little vet research, cause I don't
really care if they have cones that see red as a primary hue like we do, or some physiological mechanism that makes red stand out like a red filter does per pan film, making it appear brighter per - really don't care - but they sure as hell perk up at anything bright red. It doesn't take a matador to figure that out. Everyone in rodeo knows it too. So does every farm hand who values his life. You can take your turn. I've been chased
by too many bulls already, and frankly, don't run anywhere near as fast as I once did!

[Roger Cole]

I can look in more authoritative places, and I'm getting curious enough to do so when I have time. For all the scorn heaped on Wikipedia it tends to be pretty accurate overall. I suspect they are colorblind and can't tell a red coat or cloak from a green one. I can't prove it, and even authoritative sources couldn't prove it, but I'll look into it more.

[Drew Wiley]

They'd probably be Wicki-Peeed-in-their-pants if they ever actually tested that hypothesis. I think that was a lesson learned back when mostly naked folks learned not
to adorn themselves with red ochre on the same day as foraging around aurochs.

[Roger Cole]

History is full of "things everyone knows" that turned out to be wrong. Everyone knew tomatoes were poisonous too.

http://www.colour-blindness.com/general/myths/

They apparently can distinguish some colors but they don't get angry about red or any other color. They get angry because fighting bulls are bred for aggressiveness, already stabbed several times, and then taunted with the cloak.

http://www.colormatters.com/color-ma...mals-see-color

Mythbusters tested this one:

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/my...-ballistic.htm

MythBusters set out to find a way to test this myth — carefully. They decided to put makeshift matadors into an arena, each holding a flag of a different color, and wait for an angry bull to see red.

The red, blue and white flags got equal, half-hearted attacks when they were motionless. In order to elicit an aggressive charge response from the bull, the flags had to be waved.

Turns out, the color red isn't what causes bulls to attack. In fact, bulls don't seem to have any color preference at all. They'll charge whichever object is moving the most, which means this old myth can get tossed right out of the ring.

Myth - busted. It is, in fact, a different kind of bull.

[Scott Walker]

By far the most dangerous animals out in any woods are humans.

Yup, by a long shot

[C. D. Keth]

Last time I was in Yellowstone (4 or 5 yrs ago) there was a bison laying down about 10 feet from a boardwalk. Tourists were taking photos and a ranger giving a tour came by and told everyone to keep moving...including telling a woman who was pushing a stroller but standing well away from the beast that she could go past the bison...that it would be okay as long as she kept moving. As the stroller passed the bison, it startled and jumped up and scared the bejeebers out of everyone. The woman was not pleased with the red-faced ranger!

When I was maybe 8 years old, I remember getting a "never, ever do what those people are doing" lecture in Yellowstone. An Asian family were getting their little kid to go stand with a sleeping bull bison for a photo op.

[Michael Kadillak]

When I was maybe 8 years old, I remember getting a "never, ever do what those people are doing" lecture in Yellowstone. An Asian family were getting their little kid to go stand with a sleeping bull bison for a photo op.

I heard of an Asian guy that got to close to a bison for a photo and the animal took three long steps and launched the guy 15 feet into the air in less than a second. He was dead on impact and looked like he was a 100# sack of spuds that fell to the ground out of the back of a produce truck. Truly a sickening sight. The National Park Service did absolutely nothing to the animal upon seeing the footage much to the dismay of the victims family. Yet no matter how many languages they use and how much emphasis on deathly risk is conveyed to the visitors on this issue, park rangers continue to have to regularly arrest visitors and kick them out of the park for their own safety. Sometimes I see park visitors filming Orientals that seemingly cannot comply with these fundamental rules to see if they are going to capture their stupidity on disk. They all pile out of their car and run towards the animals when they see them near. For the life of me I cannot understand if it is a cultural disconnect or something else because I know that they have been told in their language the park rules.

[Roger Cole]

Too many anthropomorphic animal cartoons maybe. Some people just don't understand that wild animals are wild. They are not big (or small or whatever) fluffy domesticated pets.

[Vaughn]

Unbelievable that thus thread has gone this long on a subject that is so distant from the average persons reality check...

And no one has mentioned Hitler-spray yet!