Backpacking With Bears

There are preventive steps for you to take so that you will not have a bear encounter whether in you are in bear country or not.  However, this is not a guarantee, but helpful safety measures.  If you do find yourself in a bear encounter situation, what is the best deterrent.  You may be surprised to learn the answer to this question.  Precautionary measures is a great place for us to start. 

The basics while walking in the woods or on a trail is to make your presence known to the bear.  You can express your presence through talking, clapping hands, singing, or any other noise to let the bear know you are in the area.  It is crucial that you stay aware of your surroundings and if at all possible, stay out in the open.  Also be aware if there is another sound that could be drowning out the noise you are making, for instance a brook or stream.  If this is the case then all you have to do is turn up the volume.  Weather hiking in a group or with children keep track of everyone and in regards to children keeping them close to you.  Be aware of scent that come from lotions, soaps, perfumes, cologne, and the like.  When stopping for the night you should try to cook about one hundred yards from the sleeping area.  Make sure you have bear proof containers for food or by hanging a bear bag.  There are specific dimensions for hanging a bear bag, make sure you know what these are.  Women who are in their menstrual cycle take extra precautions because bears have a keen sense of smell, especially for blood.  These helpful hints can only help regardless if in bear country or not.  As mentioned earlier there are no guarantees of what will happen if you have a bear encounter. 

Over the years many suggestions have come out about what to do during one of these encounters.  Anything from running, climbing trees, shooting, playing dead, and now using a pepper spray on bears.  In regards to playing dead, it works better with grizzlies than black bears.  Learning that bears run much faster than we can, so this is no longer an option.  This is why it is necessary to keep children close because their first thoughts would be to run.  Another defense against these encounters was climbing a tree.  However, not only can you not climb fast enough to get out of the bears reach, but add to this that bears can also climb trees, your chance of safety greatly diminishes.   In regards to shooting and using a pepper spray an interesting studied showed that bear spray was the better option.  This study is credited to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services of Colorado and in particular, their law enforcement.  What law enforcement wanted to study was the bear encounters with humans.  In particular it examined bear encounters using guns and those who used bear spray and had some remarkable findings.  The analysis started in 1992 and revealed that those who used guns suffered injuries nearly 50% more than those who used bear spray.  Further examination showed that those who were attacked and used the bear spray sustained less severity in wounds and the duration of assault was shorter.  Canadian bear biologist Dr. Stephan Herrero did his own fact-finding with results very much like those done by U.S. Fish and Wildlife.  It was his determination that if you are going to use a firearm instead of spray, your chances double in attaining severe affliction.  In closing, it appears, at least according to these two studies bear spray is the better defense.