Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Why is everybody so afraid of bears? (Video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtC14cpwwXg


By making himfelf "larger" he scares the bear.. and previously stated when hunters raises their rifle to aim, they make themselves smaller, making the bear attack.

What's really 'funny' is making yourself/selves larger, louder, etc and having the bear not react except with greater interest. But large and loud is fine - when it works. And bears will posture too - and that can be an awesome display. They're certainly worthy of plenty of respect; I'm not sure that fear is very helpful however.

That works great. Every time except the last one.

funny how some think a video on the net showing a sample of one on a small bear means anything but being an anecdotal foot note

There was this one time........ about 40 years ago

in a tent-frame camp when I was cooking steaks, which attracted a 2 or 3 year old black. We faced off over the gate, with the safety-off .375 about 8 inches from his nose. Talking and yelling at him did nothing. Abruptly poking him in the nose with the muzzle did. What the heck- I had a half-inch thick, 3 foot high piece of hinged plywood between us. Plus I was a lot more excited than he was......

2 weeks later he was killed pulling that same kinda chit down in Hope, about 10 miles away.

Now I have brown bears thru or past the yard on a regular basis (I have learned the hard way how to keep the damned things off my deck - namely, clean the grill after every use - a real PITA)... but not all that much to get excited about. The Lab does that for me, and pretty much keps them detoured around the place. Today it was wolves or coyotes out there in the woods... Yesterday it was an invading moose - that one I actually saw.

He has different barks for different critters.

Bearanoia is way over-blown. But not to be discounted entirely. I mean, you don't want to put your kid on the back of a Yellowstone park bear for a picture, or some such DS action.

Timothy Treadwell wasn't afraid of bears.

That's right, he even got invited to dinner.

That guy walked fairly well down that road, given the large nutsack he must be swinging. I still prefer to be armed.

Try that with a sow and cub...

So yeah, tell this stuff to the lady doctor who was camping with her husband somewhere in the northern regions of our Province. No wait... you can't do that because she got killed and partially eaten by a 300 - 350 lb black bear. Her husband also got very badly mauled but eventually made it to civilization for help. They found her body partially buried. She was about 35.

And, oh yeah, there was this hunter just a bit north of here who was putting in a food plot for deer hunting when (another) 300 lb bear chased him up a tree. The problem with that is that bears can climb trees faster than a man can run! The bear pulled him down and started to consume him starting with his legs. He passed out. When he came to, the bear was gone. He didn't know why but finally made it to somewhere, where he got help. He spent many months in rehab and will never walk the same again. The tragedy is that he had been mauled previously by a bear and on neither occasion was he armed or carrying "bear spray".

Then there was the hunter in Quebec (a few years ago) who yelled for help from his two sons who were hunting the same area. By the time they got to him he was dead. Too bad they were not more respectful of how unpredictable bears can be.

I hunt bears every year, and have been for the past 30. I treat them with utmost respect.

If you are not afraid of bears would you camp or walk alone in a remote wilderness area without firearm, axe or spray, relying only on making yourself "big"?

This is another ridiculous thread encouraging the un-experienced around bears to act foolishly.

There are bears, and then there are BEARS!

Bob

www.bigbores.ca

First thing I thought when I watched video. I have been very close to black bears and a grizz or two and I never felt fully confident in knowing what they were thinking or what their plan was. People like this buffoon and Treadwell usually end up as dinner. This bear acts like a playful Golden retriever. hopping and bouncing around. I hardly believe it is not a hand raised bear. Even still a hand raised bear has run more then a few trainers through their colon......

I'm not afraid of bears, but they get my full attention and respect.

Yeah! He was the 'main course'.

I have to disagree. I see no one on this thread so far saying anything that connects to what you are saying. No one is saying that bears are not dangerous; quite to the contrary. No one has made any ridiculous claims. Maybe you can point out the ridiculousness?

HuntnShoot - nor to be argumentative but..



IMHO - that at least borders on the ridiculous and could encourage the 'uninformed' to act foolishly.

I don't think I would do anything to make any bear feel I was challenging it.

Raising your arms to look bigger has some value with mountain lions.

Not much value with bears.

Well, I was just at "guide" training up in Yellowstone last week and the bear expert was there. He seems like a practical guy and not the least bit "green". Making yourself "big" is a part of scaring off a CURIOUS bear. However, if you startle a bear, or if the bear is attacking out of defense, he recommends bear spray backed up with a firearm.

Incidentally, he said the new model for grizzly counting shows approx 1172 griz in the greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Up from the old, more conservative, 752 grizzlies predicted by the previous model.

Colorado was counting black bears wrong too. They had thought we had 10,000 bears. Now they think it' more like 18,000.

Bear tags are pretty easy to get now.

Well I remembered some good advice so I'll paraphrase it as best I can remember.

Someone said, In an encounter with a bear it's best IF you have time to talk in low monotone.

Someone else asked, What do you say in low monotone?

The first guy said, Well.. Our Father Who art in Heaven...

That's probably good advice.

I'd still rather have bears around over cats. Cats creep me out.

(If you are not afraid of bears would you camp or walk alone in a remote wilderness area without firearm, axe or spray, relying only on making yourself "big"?)

"Afraid" is the wrong word for those of us who live with bears all the time.

And no I don't. Usually. Well, not anymore. Well, hardly ever....

Heck, going unarmed down to check my boat 70 yards from my remote cabin turned into an an adventure last time up there. Hope he's been keeping an eye on the place since, since he was bedding under the cabin over-hang out of the rain before we got there.... and since, no doubt.

Got me a watch bear...

About one in ten black bears will be a problem, trouble is they are not numbered. Most serious encounters are stumbling into a bears cache or surprising one. A good personnel policy is to shoot first and ask questions later, especially if they are in your 'space'.

Less than 1 in 100... probably closer to 1 in 1,000. And you are in their space, not otherwise

For every time one is aware of a bear, one has encountered at least 10 bears not seen/ heard. And damned few of those encountered are ever a problem if they are wild bears, and not human aclimatized. Or even if they are.

The very rare exceptions make the news. And maul/kill/eat people.

Look at it this way - How many people live in Baltimore? How many people were shot this week?

And yeah, if I was foolish enough to go to Baltimore, I'd pack heat.

I'm likely safer wandering around in bear country unarmed, than I am armed in Baltimore. Or DC. Or Chicago. Or any large city. (It ain't my habitat, for one thing, and the law there isn't on my side, perceivably....)).

That's my perception anyway, but then I like to think I can read bears better than I can those unpredictable humans.

Hell, I know I can. Maybe it's a matter of attention... My wife, on the other hand, being a 40 year Special Ed educator, will have your number nailed within 60 seconds...

But she's also been known to think the Dachshund is the pathfinder....

She has also talked a brown bear sow (with 3 cubs in the yard) off the deck stairs while holdng the .338 WM. Uh - she had the rifle- not the bear...

I disagree completely. After many, many hundreds of up-close brown bear encounters I can say the likelihood of a problem from a mature bear is remote. Problem bears are trying to figure out what their space is in the species dynamic of their ranges. Few feel the urge to press anything they are not sure of.

Having pushed more than a bunch of bears back when they got too close by looking big I can assure you it makes a difference.

Despite the clowns insisting charging bears should be shot under the chin... we stand much taller than bears normally. Spreading your jacket to look wider with the taller will get a young bear's attention right now!

A poster from here was fishing the Buskin River right next to the Kodiak airport with me several years ago. A medium-sized boar came into our hole unannounced at very close range. I pushed him back and he did not just run away like they usually do... I was unarmed but knew the bear and was not too concerned.

Then the bear blew a cloud of bad guts that was unreal! Painting brush and sending us gagging at considerable distance. Then I realized this was a bear I should not have been pushing simply because he was not happy already!

Yup...

"Model"....

Up it by 50%, unless it is done with multi-year, hair-snag DNA sampling. Here on the Kenai, the "official estimate" nearly doubled (what all of us knew all along) once they got the funding to do the DNA thing. Even then many think it's a might low, but better than it was!

One of the things I find most hilarious about Yellowstone "protected" bears is how most of them leave the Park come hunting season. Gut piles.....

They ain't dumb, you know, and they are eating machines.

Mess with their food, mates, cubs, or surprise them at close range and you might have problems. Not to discount the very rare rogue who just wants to eat you..

Mishei found one of those over in Kamchatka. And he wasn't no Treadwell.

Sitka Deer--

Okay I defer to your personal experience.

OTOH I still would not feel comfortable 'appearing' to challenge any bear.

I know that running away triggers the 'prey' response so IMO that's not an option either.

Have a good day Sitka!

I have been involved with numerous black bears throughout my life time, if they are close enough I talk to them in a low voice. The nearest incident was a sow with two cubs, she bluff charged, went up on her back legs, chomping her teeth while I stood still explaining to her that the 300 WM I was carrying trumped her silly antics. After a few min, she called the cubs down and left. Years later a large Cougar at 17 feet unnerved me also but I was above it and did look large as I am assuming the muzzle of the WM did to the cougar. That one did unnerve me for a couple of hours. Both of these events in Idaho a few miles apart.

I don't think looking big means a thing to a boar. You're still going to look like a weak human to the bear who knows it can eat you.

It might also look like a sign of aggression to the bear. Maybe it will work on a young bear, but I wouldn't count on it for a mature boar.

Funny how many know the mind of a man-eating bear just by his appearance/size.

You want to take chances with a big boar? For me it's bear spray, or a gun. I'm not depending on looking big to scare it off.

You're free to try though.

Sorry if you weren't talking to me.