You're totally right and thanks for putting people (including myself) in their place again.
The guy who got killed in Glacier was by himself, was in a densely forested area, and was there at dusk. Three things you really, really, really shouldn't combine in Glacier, especially in the spring. Bear spray clearly didn't save him under those circumstances, nor would it have anyone.
Preventing a bad situation is always better than having to deal with a bad situation, so I agree that trying to avoid encounters in the first place should by anyone's first priority. Still, I'm personally going to continue carrying my bear spray in parks like Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Glacier. I'd still take a 33% chance of stopping an aggressive grizzly over a 0% chance without any deterrent.
But yeah, just completely relying on bear spray alone is absolutely insufficient.
I'm someone who carries a gun reasonably often. I do not carry a gun in national parks. They're special places we choose to visit, and I wouldn't want to kill a wild animal in one, even in defense of my own life. But that's me, and I think my goal here is to try to give more people the factual information they need to make the own decisions.
LOL. I'd strongly discourage people from using Bear Spray for self defense against humans. It's just so, so messy. There's no way to deploy it without also covering yourself in irritant. Instead, pick up half a dozen of these Kimber Pepper Blaster 3s, then expend a few practicing outside, using a cardboard box for a target. Then carry them in your purse/car/pockets.
With these, you get two shots that come out of the muzzle like an open-choke shotgun blast (a wide cone that spread across a reasonably broad area). They shoot a gel rather than a spray, so it's impervious to wind, and clings to an attacker, while staining their face and clothing bright red for later identification by police. They're also fired by a shotgun shell primer rather than simple pressure, so will never leak in a hot car.
I know several people who have deployed these in anger. They are immediately and definitively effective.
In the 80’s & 90’s I frequently traveled through Yellowstone on my way to Flathead Lake from Colorado. Three years ago was my first time back in at least 15 years. I was shocked by the stacks and stacks of bear spray for sale in the park gift shops. I don’t have any kind of expertise, but it just struck me as a way to rip off the tourists capitalizing on exaggerated fears.
Great piece. I can’t recall the source now but I had read somewhere that the NPS and CA DFW spent a lot of time looking at the (insanely) high population density of black bears in the Yosemite ecosystem. The short of it is that the basic defense of “make noise and act like the person at 3am fighting a 7-11 trash can” worked really well. Grain of salt, as Yosemite bears are very used to people and the human-wildlife relationship there, and constant efforts of staff, has caused those to animals to adapt to an extent.
Spray is prohibited in Yosemite; rumor mill is that some superintendent got tired of accidental discharges shutting down campgrounds and bathrooms.
One of my (few) favorite people in the gun-verse often writes about how new gun owners will buy a gun. They’ll proceed to shoot a box of ammo with horrid performance but gun media will say that such a thing is good enough. The gun will become seen as a talisman and the owner will happily plod along at a very low skill level. The gun owner will also not bother to practice any awareness or social skills. The whole process tends to go very poorly when the extremely rare occurrence happens when a firearm and de-confliction is needed.
I think the same is very true for bear spray, only it is much more accessible and convenient than firearms. “Hey we got bear spray and this will magically sort things out.”
Akin to the aforementioned and unsubstantiated Yosemite superintendent, bear spray is also easier to push to land managers, guides, and social media influencers. It lacks some of the social stigma of firearms but still offers the talisman effect.
I don't let inexperienced people carry bear spray around me or my vehicles. The whole vibe around it is casual unseriousness, with no respect for how easily it can be so awful.
Same with snow tires. I’ve found that inexperienced winter weather drivers who put snow tires on think they’re now invincible snd can still drive 60mph and stop on a dime. On ice no less.
We know they’re apex predators right. Reminds me of the fool who thought the grizzlies accepted him and brought his girl friend to bond with them. The bears bonded with themselves over dinner. Even free spirits have to think occasionally.
Sympathies for the man and his family regardless. I always have respected the fact that my neighbor's big (huge) gruff grizzled old German Shepard "Spit" has chased off every sizeable woodland predator venturing into our yard for a number of years. In fact it only usually takes a great big growling bark since he sounds like an oncoming freight train. Yet when local (only brown or black) bears decide to hike in and amble about to lay up against the warm summer glass of the sliding glass doors to sleep the afternoon away, Spit retreats to the far side of the great big wooden porch and pretends not to see the smelly sleeping things the humans also ignore. What Spit respects makes more sense to me than anything I read anywhere so we lock ourselves inside and take the requisite all clear sign to come out when Spit is out in the front yard playing with the cat.
I saw a video of a bunch of humans watching a bunch of grizzlies catching salmon. This was before AI. A grizzly came over to the humans and challenged them. The humans didn't move. The grizzly finally went back to the salmon catching. At that point a woman said to the group leader, "That wasn't supposed to happen!" End of video.
The point is that grizzlies are as unpredictable as humans. And they think that they are apex predators.
I backpack solo across California I do not walk into the wilderness with anything less than a 9mm, if I am in brown bear territory the 1911 rides instead.
U know what scares the shit out of all wildlife 90% of the time? The repeated bark of a firearm.
Only time I ever not scared an animal away with a firearm was a very skinny and desperate mountain lion.
Any steps you can take to alert bears of your presence are good. Being aware of wind direction, making plenty of *human* noises, etc.
Wind is also a reason why dogs are such valuable bear avoidance tools. If wind is blowing from a bear to us, I've got three dogs there that will smell the bear and alert me a long ways off. If the wind is blowing from three dogs to the bear, that bear is gone.
Yes, yes, YES. I’ve always thought this and…don’t live in griz country (though it’s entirely possible they may wander in this direction, a wildlife biologist swore up and down that he saw a griz in Hells Canyon back in the ‘70s). But the bear spray hype always had me raising my brows.
I’m thinking that during a bear attack - unless the bear has given you ample warning - you’d be hard pressed to get your bear spray or your gun into position unless you carry both on your belt and can deploy the spray at the right distance ( and no wind), or have a steady hand and good aim and the correct caliber firearm. So understanding bears and avoiding an encounter in the first place is good advice. I don’t know much about guns but I live in black bear, moose, wolf and cougar country and have hiked in grizzly country and while I carry spray my first defense is not attracting bears near my home and picking safer times of day and terrain to hike in and being very aware of birthing season. Predatory bears who see people as food, even black bears, are a whole other thing than surprising or getting too close to a bear. If you like to be out in the woods or tundra or desert you have to understand the risk ( weather, terrain, snakes and ticks, and wild animals - not just carnivores, I know of at least one person killed by a mountain goat) and that you can’t out gun, out spray, out maneuver all risk.
You're totally right and thanks for putting people (including myself) in their place again.
The guy who got killed in Glacier was by himself, was in a densely forested area, and was there at dusk. Three things you really, really, really shouldn't combine in Glacier, especially in the spring. Bear spray clearly didn't save him under those circumstances, nor would it have anyone.
Preventing a bad situation is always better than having to deal with a bad situation, so I agree that trying to avoid encounters in the first place should by anyone's first priority. Still, I'm personally going to continue carrying my bear spray in parks like Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Glacier. I'd still take a 33% chance of stopping an aggressive grizzly over a 0% chance without any deterrent.
But yeah, just completely relying on bear spray alone is absolutely insufficient.
I'm someone who carries a gun reasonably often. I do not carry a gun in national parks. They're special places we choose to visit, and I wouldn't want to kill a wild animal in one, even in defense of my own life. But that's me, and I think my goal here is to try to give more people the factual information they need to make the own decisions.
Oh yeah, absolutely and thanks for doing that!
So use the buddy system with bears, use the bear spray on men. Got it.👍
LOL. I'd strongly discourage people from using Bear Spray for self defense against humans. It's just so, so messy. There's no way to deploy it without also covering yourself in irritant. Instead, pick up half a dozen of these Kimber Pepper Blaster 3s, then expend a few practicing outside, using a cardboard box for a target. Then carry them in your purse/car/pockets.
With these, you get two shots that come out of the muzzle like an open-choke shotgun blast (a wide cone that spread across a reasonably broad area). They shoot a gel rather than a spray, so it's impervious to wind, and clings to an attacker, while staining their face and clothing bright red for later identification by police. They're also fired by a shotgun shell primer rather than simple pressure, so will never leak in a hot car.
I know several people who have deployed these in anger. They are immediately and definitively effective.
https://amzn.to/4dzSOXe
I'm still carrying my bear spray. I make a lot of noise by just yelling out words or singing badly. So far no bears. I hike the Beartooth.
And I'm scarred of moose. I give them wide berth too.
Dude, moose are so scary. I got hunted by a rutting bull down in Taylor Fork one year, and it was no bueno.
In the 80’s & 90’s I frequently traveled through Yellowstone on my way to Flathead Lake from Colorado. Three years ago was my first time back in at least 15 years. I was shocked by the stacks and stacks of bear spray for sale in the park gift shops. I don’t have any kind of expertise, but it just struck me as a way to rip off the tourists capitalizing on exaggerated fears.
Great piece. I can’t recall the source now but I had read somewhere that the NPS and CA DFW spent a lot of time looking at the (insanely) high population density of black bears in the Yosemite ecosystem. The short of it is that the basic defense of “make noise and act like the person at 3am fighting a 7-11 trash can” worked really well. Grain of salt, as Yosemite bears are very used to people and the human-wildlife relationship there, and constant efforts of staff, has caused those to animals to adapt to an extent.
Spray is prohibited in Yosemite; rumor mill is that some superintendent got tired of accidental discharges shutting down campgrounds and bathrooms.
One of my (few) favorite people in the gun-verse often writes about how new gun owners will buy a gun. They’ll proceed to shoot a box of ammo with horrid performance but gun media will say that such a thing is good enough. The gun will become seen as a talisman and the owner will happily plod along at a very low skill level. The gun owner will also not bother to practice any awareness or social skills. The whole process tends to go very poorly when the extremely rare occurrence happens when a firearm and de-confliction is needed.
I think the same is very true for bear spray, only it is much more accessible and convenient than firearms. “Hey we got bear spray and this will magically sort things out.”
Akin to the aforementioned and unsubstantiated Yosemite superintendent, bear spray is also easier to push to land managers, guides, and social media influencers. It lacks some of the social stigma of firearms but still offers the talisman effect.
I don't let inexperienced people carry bear spray around me or my vehicles. The whole vibe around it is casual unseriousness, with no respect for how easily it can be so awful.
Same with snow tires. I’ve found that inexperienced winter weather drivers who put snow tires on think they’re now invincible snd can still drive 60mph and stop on a dime. On ice no less.
Ditto for four wheel drive. As my old man used to say “It doesn’t mean four wheel stop”.
Thanks!
We know they’re apex predators right. Reminds me of the fool who thought the grizzlies accepted him and brought his girl friend to bond with them. The bears bonded with themselves over dinner. Even free spirits have to think occasionally.
Sympathies for the man and his family regardless. I always have respected the fact that my neighbor's big (huge) gruff grizzled old German Shepard "Spit" has chased off every sizeable woodland predator venturing into our yard for a number of years. In fact it only usually takes a great big growling bark since he sounds like an oncoming freight train. Yet when local (only brown or black) bears decide to hike in and amble about to lay up against the warm summer glass of the sliding glass doors to sleep the afternoon away, Spit retreats to the far side of the great big wooden porch and pretends not to see the smelly sleeping things the humans also ignore. What Spit respects makes more sense to me than anything I read anywhere so we lock ourselves inside and take the requisite all clear sign to come out when Spit is out in the front yard playing with the cat.
I saw a video of a bunch of humans watching a bunch of grizzlies catching salmon. This was before AI. A grizzly came over to the humans and challenged them. The humans didn't move. The grizzly finally went back to the salmon catching. At that point a woman said to the group leader, "That wasn't supposed to happen!" End of video.
The point is that grizzlies are as unpredictable as humans. And they think that they are apex predators.
I backpack solo across California I do not walk into the wilderness with anything less than a 9mm, if I am in brown bear territory the 1911 rides instead.
U know what scares the shit out of all wildlife 90% of the time? The repeated bark of a firearm.
Only time I ever not scared an animal away with a firearm was a very skinny and desperate mountain lion.
Rule 1: Don't fuck with bears.
Love it, and thanks for putting this out there.
Feelin less trepidation bout’ Glamping in Glacier. I’ll also remember my bear lesson learned in Alaska.
Wind also , if you have a chance , and are not hunting , try to keep wind to you back
Any steps you can take to alert bears of your presence are good. Being aware of wind direction, making plenty of *human* noises, etc.
Wind is also a reason why dogs are such valuable bear avoidance tools. If wind is blowing from a bear to us, I've got three dogs there that will smell the bear and alert me a long ways off. If the wind is blowing from three dogs to the bear, that bear is gone.
Yes, yes, YES. I’ve always thought this and…don’t live in griz country (though it’s entirely possible they may wander in this direction, a wildlife biologist swore up and down that he saw a griz in Hells Canyon back in the ‘70s). But the bear spray hype always had me raising my brows.
I’m thinking that during a bear attack - unless the bear has given you ample warning - you’d be hard pressed to get your bear spray or your gun into position unless you carry both on your belt and can deploy the spray at the right distance ( and no wind), or have a steady hand and good aim and the correct caliber firearm. So understanding bears and avoiding an encounter in the first place is good advice. I don’t know much about guns but I live in black bear, moose, wolf and cougar country and have hiked in grizzly country and while I carry spray my first defense is not attracting bears near my home and picking safer times of day and terrain to hike in and being very aware of birthing season. Predatory bears who see people as food, even black bears, are a whole other thing than surprising or getting too close to a bear. If you like to be out in the woods or tundra or desert you have to understand the risk ( weather, terrain, snakes and ticks, and wild animals - not just carnivores, I know of at least one person killed by a mountain goat) and that you can’t out gun, out spray, out maneuver all risk.