Ask A Bear: Scare A Marauding Bear?

Got a burning ursine question? Ask our resident bruin expert in our new weekly feature, 'Ask A Bear.'

Q: While sleeping this past summer, what I thought was a bear entered my camp. After the initial fear passed, I wondered: Should just sit quiet in my tent, or attempt to scare the bear away? —Steve, via email

p.s. I chose to leave the tent and scare the bear away, which turned out to be a tree stump.

A: Wow—that was a close one, Steve. You ever seen a tree stump victim? You'll wish I mauled you instead.

As for me (get used to this answer): It depends. If you know you're in black-bear-only country, you're best off grabbing your flashlight/headlamp so you can safely check out where I am, and then yelling or banging pots and pans to scare me off. That usually does the trick, and you'll be doing me a favor by associating a negative experience with both you and your tasty, tasty food. Don't ever approach me, though—if the noise isn't scaring me away, I'm likely too habituated. I'll probably eat your food, shuffle off, and rangers will deal with me later (gulp).

However, if you're in potential grizzly territory, you should probably stay in your tent and leave me the the hell alone. If I'm a grizzly, I won't scare easily when I get exploratory, and you shouldn't risk the chance of provoking a defensive or offensive attack. Most likely, I'll ransack your food, or simply cruise the scene and leave. Either way, report my presence to a ranger as soon as possible (gulp again—why am I telling you this?).

Of course, your first and smartest line of defense is to keep me out of camp in the first place. Check with rangers about bear activity before you head out, and avoid camps where I've picked up a taste for food and I'm a known visitor. Once you get to camp, employ proper procedures to keep me from messing with your Pop Tarts—park-approved food storage lockers or bear poles are usually best, followed by bear canisters, with bear bags behind those (I'm a black bear, I might know how to get to bear bags—they're practically teaching classes in Yosemite).

—BEAR

Got a question for the bear? Send it to askabear@backpacker.com.

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READERS COMMENTS

I'm reading a lot about "Scaring bears away"...
You Don't go insulting a monstrous rodent that has daggers for fingernails, and is capable of snapping a adult moose's neck in a second with its powerful arms.. You just Don't mess with monsters... You treat them with respect...

I met an adult female grizzly, roaming the river near my camp kitchen.. I heard its growl from near the river, about 200-feet from my tent... I set my pistols and blades in the tent, washed my pits, hands, face, and crotch, and combed my hair, and straightened my clothing, and walked up to her at 1:30 AM.. Her eyes shone bright coppery in the moon light... I stopped 8-feet from her, and bowed, and spoke "Greetings your Majesty".. The bear glanced behind itself to see who I was talking to... I sat, and talked to the bear for 40-minutes... Half way into the confrontation I felt fear bubbling up inside me, and pushed it back down... [Fear is spice for carnivore-food.. Smell like fear, means you are telling the beast that you are food... Fear gets you attacked and eaten... If you fear the bush, then just stay out of the bush.. and do your fun in the city.. go to the movies or a dance, or a pub.]..

I felt fear bubbling up inside me, so I said to the bear, "Princess.. after comparing your size and potential for violence to my size and inability to defend myself, I feel scared... I Don't like scared!.. Would you kindly do something to fix it?"
The bear blinked a lengthy blink, then lowered herself out of attack-posture, and sat...

Next early morning I was woke by the bear sniffing me from head to toes as I slept half out of the tent on that hot summer night... She disturbed my sleep when she poked her nose on my bum twice... I made a little whinny sound, and rolled over in trying to escape her vile stench, and she exited quietly and polite...
I can confidently say that "an adult she-griz kissed my bum with respect", twice...
Why?.. Because I treat the wilderness creatures with absolute Respect... All of you, Treat wilderness-critters with absolute respect, or you just stay out of their home!..

________________________

I often go for a midnight hike, without a light... My eyes are blessed with a degree of night vision after surviving seven near death accidents...
On Vancouver Island, I was on a night-hike, when I hears a long low growl of a cougar, about 30-feet to my right... I have this ability to automatically pump serotonin when situations get tense.. It relaxes me bigtime in dangerous moments...
I heard the cougar's growl, turned my head toward the growl, and says "Walk with me your majesty"...
I could hear it walking beside me, about ten feet from me, for about two-minutes, then it leapt across my path a couple feet in front of my face as it released its general fierce attack growl.. then it was gone... I figured its leap and growl was it telling me to "go no further!"... I figured maybe it had babies nearby..? I turned around and went back to camp...

Do you know why the cougar leapt and fierce growled right in front of me..?

Posted: Nov 19, 2009 Cosmicbrat (DonaldJ Engel)