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.
"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.
