Fucking hell. My wife and I wanted to plan our next hiking trip and go to Banff, then started reading about the grizzly threat. It seemed real, and there are so many beautiful places to go, so we dropped it.
Then, about a week ago, a guy in the gym at work is telling me about his trip to Banff where they took their kids along too. I started thinking maybe we should go for it. Now I read this awful news. Suddenly it once more seems like a bad idea.
"only 14% of grizzly bear attacks are fatal" seems like this just downplays the danger. If a product on the shelves had "only 14%" chance of causing cancer people would be livid.
They are very fuckin dangerous. And very fuckin fast. They eat other grizzly bears without mercy too. Especially if there’s not enough salmon around.
In Canada kills by bears in the green belt is a known risk and they have procedures to try to lessen interference with the wild life for this reason. That’s the only reason why the deaths are down. It’s not like rural people are flaunting themselves at wildlife and have them as pets. The deaths start going up when city folk start wandering into the wild thinking every bear is a big ol puppy dog.
I would need to see the specifics of that statistic but understand that most people who are in a situation to be attacked by a bear have done the research on what to do.
For a grizzly? Play dead while protecting your vitals to the best of your ability. So you either play dead or get knocked unconscious and effectively ARE dead. And then you live.
It is mostly untrained people who have no business being in the back country who die. Or people who are unfortunate enough to get between mama and her cubs.
So its one of those things where there are a LOT of other factors and not many actual attacks to begin with.
There's actually an interesting statistic where bear attacks from black bears are more likely to happen from the males, whereas attacks from grizzlies are more likely to happen from the females.
Black bear cubs have a strategy to run up the nearest tree when threatened and the mama bear guards the base of the tree rather than going on the offensive, so you are able to back away and avoid an attack a lot easier than a female grizzly, since grizzly cubs don't instinctually climb trees when threatened but inside rely on the mother to defend them by going on the offensive.
The bears can share the outdoors with people. This story is light on details but bear spray is considered the best defense against bear.
I've camped many times in bear country and slept in a tent. I kept bear spray with me at all times and fortunately had no problems...knock on wood. Most of the time it is OK but you have to be intelligent about it. Don't leave food out, carry bear spray, stay away from bear as much as possible, etc.
Also, there are plenty of great outdoor places you can go that don't have bear. Not saying they're risk free, almost nowhere is risk free. But there are "safer" parks, etc. (not "safe", just "safer").
I would never want to be only stuck inside. There's too much amazing to see outside.
Bear balls! That's what my wife and I use (along with bear spray and a 10mm). Little jingly balls you hook into your backpack. Now just walking makes a continuous noise.
a shotgun is probably the only thing that would've saved them. or, just choosing not to hike in bear country at this time of year. This is when the more desperate bears will eat anything that moves. They aren't picky, and playing dead will not save you if a bear is extremely hungry, as they are in drought conditions. just a tragic reminder that bears can and will kill, and eat you under certain circumstances.
What? That link immediately refutes this claim in the next sentence "Although this claim has been disputed because of the 83 incidents in the Smith study[10] only 18 cases involved an aggressive bear, and of those 18 only 9 involved a charging bear."
Agree but you need to be very mindful for the type of gun.
Any more typical pistol like 9mm, 380, 45ACP won't do much against a bear. 10mm high penetration rounds (ie not holopoints, hard cast is preferable) is probably the minimum I'd want if I can't carry a rifle in bear country.
Gun owners have to pipe in whenever there's a legitimate reason for a firearm otherwise the narrative is that we only have them because we love mass shootings and dead children.