NOLS Faculty Summit Bear Safety Talk with Bear Biologist Dr. Tom Smith

[@gus473]

Thanks for posting this! A New York Times reader put a link to this in the comments on what to do about cougars in California, which brought me here. 😎✌️

[@y9y-f9q]

This lecture is fantastic. I'm really glad I stumbled onto this

[@tweedytreks]

All time best bear information and knowledge I've ever heard of and came across in my life.

[@johnarndt1501]

Well u can add the couple and their dog that got killed in Canada recently to the list where bear spray did not work. There has also been others (especially in montana) where bear spray failed. I carry both.

[@ericschwartz9982]

Great information. I just came off the JMT in September of this year and I encountered only one person who was carrying bear spray. I wasn't carrying any (dumb me). She told me she had several encounters on her through hike of the CDT and wasn't backpacking without the spray. I will be carrying spray 100% of the time going forward on all of my hikes. Thanks for sharing the science!

[@pedro1970maya]

This is a great lecture. I am a lifelong backpacker and hiker. I have seen many black bear in the Northwoods of wisconsin, in Oregon and in Washington State in my 54 years of existence. On three occasions I've encountered black bear boars who were acting way too focused on me, enough to give me goosebumps, and on one occasion a female mountain lion. All four times, I had both bear spray on me, as well as a gun. And I required neither. My first instinct on All occasions was to grab my spray as back-up, but instead of discharging it, to run fast towards the animal in faked anger. And they all immediately turned tail and ran. Fast! And flat-out disappeared. Like magic. The black bears' focus on me all three times was ambiguous, and could have been curiosity (although I saw open mouth drooling, and ears down). Yet on all the many other occasions I saw a black bear they immediately disappeared and did not stick around focused on me. The mountain lion was acting extremely aggressively, and bluff charged, so seeing her disappear completely after expressing so much interest in me was both surprising and very welcome. I have no experience with brown bear at all. Would that response guarantee my quick death, or would that also be a possible effective first course of action? I'm not talking about a bear gently walking by or going about his business, but the one who is past the stage of standing up and sniffing , and now focused on you. In this vein I recall a video from some ecologist in Norway who was about to be charged by a LARGE brown bear just 10 yards away on the other side of the road, and at the last second he raised his arms and roared and the bear turned on a dime (I assume you are familiar with that video, but if not I can locate it for you, just let me know).

[@toysrus2413]

Thanks for sharing. Great information to know. Would you ever sleep in a tent in these types of areas? I wish the guy in the video covered tents a bit. Great vid nonetheless

[@pedro1970maya]

@@toysrus2413 If I am in Montana, Idaho or Alaska, where there are brown bear, then I use an electric fence and put woody debris around the tent. I want the approach to awaken me, and not being masticated on, lol. But I've never encountered brown bear while camping the times I have been in brown bear territory. Everywhere else I set up my tent so that it doesn't have a clear approach, and so things will make a noise approaching. And follow basic bear safety re food and clothing used while cooking. Also, I assume a bear will be attracted to the hanging food bag first, and I put a heavy cow bell on that string (so light breezes don't set it off). I don't personally know of any manufacturers who do, but I don't see why Kevlar can be used for a tent in brown bear territory. In general, I figure that as long as I have a gun with me in the tent and I have enough heads up to be aware of the presence of a bear before it's tearing up my tent and chewing on me, then I have the advantage. I carry a Sig Sauer p365 SAS with a Wilson Combat grip module that gives me 17 bullets, plus one in the chamber. So I have 18 9-mm bullets to shoot at anything trying to enter my tent without having to change magazines. (The bear spray does me absolutely no good when I'm inside the tent unless I want to suffocate and that noxious plume myself). If I'm in brown bear territory I still opt to try bear spray first, but my backup is a 10 mm gun. Lower calibers literally bounce off the extremely thick skull of a grizzly. To the extent anyone cares, you also need to use hardcast leaded bullets designed to penetrate through bone, and not self-defense rounds that are designed to expand and create maximum damage in tissue (there's a company called Buffalo Bore that makes the best). You also need to do headshot only to stop it neurologically, because otherwise, unless you luck into a direct heart shot, it will take a couple of minutes or more to bleed out, and in the meantime maul you). Also, I never backpack alone in dangerous territory, and my agreement is always that one person is in charge of the bear spray and the other provides cover with a weapon, giving bear spray the first chance. What I don't have enough of an understanding of is the psychology of how to respond to a brown bear before it is an actual Attack Mode. Is it wise to aggressively scare them off, my style, or is it really better to use "hey bear" neutral language that feels wrong to me. I think a bear is instead very binary and is deciding are you prey, or are you another predator? In that case the "hey bear" language is excessively ambiguous. Apparently what also matters according to most of my hunting buddies in Alaska is whether bears have been exposed to humans or not. Those who have not are much more likely to be very aggressive. Those who have been exposed to humans know to avoid them. And a mother with cubs is bad news no matter what.

[@toysrus2413]

@@pedro1970maya Cool man thank you. I don't think I will come to USA to hike then. I wouldn't have a gun. And like you say, bear spray inside a tent is not a good idea. I don't mind facing one out in the open on trail with a bear spray to hand, but being woken up (if I even managed to get to sleep) in a tent with one outside is not a nice idea to me :/

[@pedro1970maya]

@@toysrus2413 it's a frightening concept to me. It's a super rare thing to happen, but literally nightmare stuff if it does. I'm never not aware that I'm in big bear territory, if I am in big bear territory. I have several friends who will sleep in bear territory, but only if they have sufficient numbers to always ensure there is alaways someone awake, on guard duty. That also involves the most classic bear deterrent: keeping a fire on.

[@toysrus2413]

@@pedro1970maya Yes that's it... Pretty unlikely, but if it did happen, absolutely worsed way to go tied with shark attack. Truly terrifying. I don't know how everyon on the PCT and Appalachian trail relax enough to sleep. They were the hikes that were interesting me. But even black bears occasionally go for people in tents. I read of one recently that bit a guy's leg through it. Another that dragged off and ate a guy chilling in a deck chair. And also a brown bear killed a couple and their poor dog recently. Yikes

[@NorthwestWanderer]

That was solid and great information

[@lou9029]

Thanks for the informative lecture. Appreciate your expertise and sharing it with us.

[@chrisponsano4378]

Boat horn! Ear splitting sound wave. Works great! Carry the bear spray, of course. But the boat horn is much louder than I can yell amd scream. Also, I carry ear splitting stainless steel whistles on a lanyard around my neck. Our group learned that three sharp blows on the whistle means you are in trouble. Plus, the whistle carries over a long distance and through the brush.

[@DaimyoD0]

Sounds like a pretty good idea to me. I've been curious about getting experimental results for other kinds of countermeasures like that. Air horns, whistles, and especially bear-bangers (which are like pen flares but explode like a firework). Definitely an interesting idea. But for bears or otherwise, I absolutely agree, a signalling whistle is a great idea. They make some that are so small, light, _and_ loud that there's basically no excuse for not just putting one in your First Aid Kit at least. And this is coming from an ultralight enthusiast lol. And that's exactly right-three short whistles, three evenly spaced gunshots, and three flashes of a mirror, are all internationally recognized signals for distress. And the more people who know that, the more useful it will be! Lol

[@Livingthewild]

As Tom noted, bear bells are not biologically relevant. Same goes for horns, whistles, etc. I can't even remember how many times I've seen sound aversion not work. Grizzlies like to eat marmot, aka, "whistle pigs", so forget the whistle.

[@TeresaCatherine-wi9co]

Thats correct. Smith's research backs this up.​@user-ym5hx6ky2m

[@pgreenx]

Would liked to hear about what to do when camping

[@Fine_VR.]

At first I thought this account would be OP but no

[@DaimyoD0]

Yeah understandable lol. I originally found this through a link on Reddit. The original NOLS video is unlisted, for reasons I don't understand. I reposted it because I think it's important information that people should hear. If you're looking for more stuff from Dr. Tom Smith, I have a few podcast links in the description. Same topic, new info. I found it worthwhile personally. He doesn't seem to have his own KZbin channel, unfortunately. NOLS does, but they don't seem to post much educational content.

[@TheFlanman10]

Alot of good information. The gun use data is slightly off but non the less good. I will take my gun 9/9 times.

[@chrismiksovsky5871]

Appreciate the info, but this talk could've been given in 2 minutes: - Bears are risk averse, - Carry a deterrent (spray is statistically better than a gun), - Stand your ground at first; move on if the bear doesn't leave, - Make appropriate noise.

[@marcalan1198]

There's to much info on bear safety in national parks!!! There's only 1 way to ensure safe trekking in brown bear country. It's best to make sure a brown hears you approaching BEFORE IT SEE'S YOU THAN AFTER!!.