I watched a show a few days ago on "Animal Planet". Can't remember the name of the program, but it was basically about an older guy who is a renowned expert with bears. In particular the Grizzly. This gentleman has done extremely large amounts of research on bears in Canada and in Russia.
What made this program interesting, he was trying to prove humans and bears can live together and there be no fear of the bear themselves.
This guy went to Russia, found some bear cubs someone had trapped, and bought them from the Russian government. He was also given space out in the middle of nowhere to raise these cubs. Yeah, I know...sounds like the typical "raises bear from cub, turns bear loose in the wild" type story, however it was interesting, because he raised them acting as the surrogate mother bear.
He taught them to hunt, taught them to fish by catching trout and salmon and placing them into a section of the river that the bears could fish from. He would catch salmon and turn the fish loose in a lake and let the bears chase down and eat them.
He also wanted the teach the bears he was in fact their mother. To do this, he needed to make them understand he was going to protect them just as a mother would. In this particular area, there were several wild adult bears...not just the two young ones. He would essentially stand up to full grown grizzlies to protect the cubs. He had no weapons other than a walking stick and a can of pepper spray.
In one instance a large male charged the cubs, and this guy stepped between the cubs and the male...gave it a shot of pepper spray which made the bear turn and high-tail it out the area.
Is there a point to this? Not really, but it did open my eyes to the possibility to the fact bears aren't going to attack at random just because they have a pool going with their fellow bears. I can only speak for myself, but on the off chance I happen to cross paths with a bear, I don't think I would have the discipline to lay there, play dead, and let a bear "taste" me.
I would have to venture a guess, but I'd be willing to bet I'd be running around in circles, arms flailing about, screaming like a wounded banshee! Hopefully, this in of itself is enough to either thoroughly confuse, or scare the holy hell out of it. If that should not work...the muzzle flash from a large caliber handgun should do the trick.
kevinb wrote:The average bear can reach speeds of 30mph
One thing to remember...you don't have to be able to outrun the bear...just whoever you happen to be with!
Chad
