“If it’s black, fight back. If it’s brown, lie down.”
That’s shortened to the point of being useless and leaves out all parts that actually matter.
First of all, there are black grizzlies and brown “Black bears” and the sizes of the species overlap. It may be hard to identify a bear that’s coming at you.Here’s what you should do: Carry bear spray whenever you’re in bear country!
When you encounter a bear close up, stand still, take out your pepper spray (or anything you can use as a weapon) and start talking to it calmly. Let it know you’re a human and neither aggressive nor afraid. Ask it how its day is going!
If it backs down, you walk backwards slowly till it’s out of sight, then find a different route.
If it stops, advances or charges, you stand still, facing it. Don’t run or climb a tree.
Most charges are mock charges where it’ll stop before you.If it doesn’t stop and gets within 20 feet, shoot your bear spray, which resolves 98% of bear attacks without injury:
https://irp.cdn-website.com/01d676b7/files/uploaded/Tom_Smith_Research_Report___Efficacy_of_Bear_Spray_(1).pdf In the other 2%, fight for your life. Aim for the nose. Good Luck!Lying down might sometimes be better if it’s a Grizzly, depending on its reason for attacking you, but there’s no way you can know that. Chances are, after its first slap you’re lying down anyway.
Source: worked as a ranger in British Columbia
Just want to add, because as an outdoorsy guy in Pennsylvania, I’m a little dumbfounded by how many people seem to think we might have brown/grizzly bears in our neck of the woods.
There aren’t. If you’re reading this, odds are pretty good that you don’t live in brown bear country, because you’re probably in an English-speaking country, and just going by numbers you’re probably not in the parts of western Canada, Alaska, or the tiny part of the Continental US (mostly just Yellowstone) where they can be found.
Everywhere else in North America it’s black bears (or polar bears, but I really hope you don’t need help identifying those, and maybe a handful of grizzly-polar bear hybrids)
If you’re in Europe you have brown or polar bears.
If you’re in Asia, you have a few species with a bit of overlap- brown, polar, panda, sun, and 2 or 3 other species I don’t remember off the top of my head.
If you’re in the Andes, you got spectacled bears.
If you’re anywhere else in the world, read the sign by the cage because you’re in a zoo.
Also, I have never encountered a black bear that didn’t immediately fuck off the moment it noticed me. There are certainly bolder ones out there, and you should always take any reasonable precautions, but when I’m camping and hiking, bears are basically at the bottom of my list of concerns, squirrels, chipmunks, mice, etc. generally rank higher, I’ve had chipmunks try to get into my pack while I was sitting there watching it.
All my years of camping I’ve had exactly 1 incident with a bear back when I was in scouts, and it happened when we were all away from camp, it got into a box of cookware, and I suspect it probably immediately scared itself away when the pots and pans went clattering everywhere.
My experience with black bears as well. They fuck off as soon as they see you.
Grizzlies seemed more annoyed, like “Why’s there a human in my woods? I just wanna chill.”
So depending on their mood, they’ll usually check you out, maybe try to get you to fuck off, and failing that, grudgingly walk away.I actually missed the number one protection against bear (and cougar) attacks in my post:
Have a hiking partner and talk to them. Or sing to yourself.
That reduces the chance of even encountering a bear by a lot cause they hear you coming and avoid you well in advance.
The drawback is you won’t get to see a bear.Our bear safety trainer actually said step 1 in a bear encounter is: Take out your camera.
It puts you in a more reasonable mindset, cause almost no encounters lead to attacks. And you can take some sweet pictures.What about a moose?
I had a friend from the UK who planned on biking across Canada (never happened). He asked what animals he should be scared of. It wasnt the bears. Its moose.
They look goofy as fuck, yes. But they can be aggressive for seemingly no reason and fuck you up real quick. Theyre big, heavy, strong, and have a fucking weapon strapped to their head.
Do. Not. Fuck. With. The. Moose.
A moose bit my sister once
Always run faster than the guy with the broken leg!
You will need a bay. Just saying. Legs don’t just break themselves.
Similar but also not at all relevant.
The saying goes “if it’s brown flush it down. If it’s yellow let it mellow”
Is you’re lost but someone knows where you’re supposed to be it’s probably better to stay put.
Also moss can grow on any side of a tree.
The brightest star in the sky is not the North Star (Polaris). If you follow the brightest star in the sky you will follow a planet and travel some curved path.
How to really find Polaris:
Cool, now how do I find those thingies?
I always struggled with that, too, until my cousin taught me to use Cassiopeia. The other constellations use way too complex of shapes and require accuracy, and they’re not super-bright.
Cassiopeia looks like a W or M. Look for 5 dots that could possibly form an ugly W where the left side is wider and more shallow than the right. It’ll genuinely stand out like this.
There it is!
Now, mentally draw a straight line across the tips of the shallow side of the W. Then, draw a straight line through that starting from the bottom of the shallow side. You’ll get something like an arrow shape. Keep following that perpendicular line away from the W until you find something nearby the line that is noticeably bright. That’s Polaris!
After you find that, you can confirm you found the right star by looking for the dippers and shit.
Meh, looking for the dippers always worked for me. You put a lot of thought into this.
Look up
Live somewhere dark enough and gain pattern recognition
Edit: This was kind of unhelpful, so I’ll also recommend Stellarium. The Big Dipper is comprised of very bright stars, and is visible in the northern hemisphere year-round, so it’s a good first constellation to learn. Once you get used to how it looks both on stellarium and in the night sky, you’ll be better equipped to extrapolate how other constellations should look in the night sky, given how they look on stellarium. Once you start building those neural pathways, it gets a lot easier.
I realize this is basically just “git gud” but for astronomy, but it really is a matter of experience, not skill
I mean besides Venus, Polaris is not even the brightest real star. (Its Sirius)
Drinking your own pee will end up dehydrating you faster, contrary to how confident Bear Grylls is in it being a decent strategy.
I think Bear Grylls has a fetish and managed to fool people into thinking it was a survival skill.
But if you’re lost in a desert you should rub pee on your skin to conserve water. (I’m not kidding that’s a real thing.)
Sometimes it annoys me when I both need to pee and am thirsty. Like, damn you body, why wont you just keep that water for other stuff i need instead of wasting it on producing pee.
This is a joke, I know peeing is important.
I think even Bear admits that it should be an absolute last resort. Like a “well I’m like 99% sure I’m dying in the next ten minutes, why not?” sort of situation.
So I’m gonna die anyway, but with the taste of piss in my mouth? Fuck that.
soooo. your not going to finish yours?
you’re*
Learn basic grammar.
youll need to get in line on that complaint. my worst subject was foreign language and my next worst was english.
If you need help look for a cop.
You’d never find one of you went looking over here, I’ve not seen a cop on foot or parked up in YEARS. Only ever see em driving somewhere. Strange.
When I spent some time in the USA though it was creepy, they’d drive their cars around real slow, just watching you, and they’re everywhere. It felt weirdly oppressive/threatening to have them always around the next corner, always over your shoulder…watching o.O
No you got it backwards, you look for a cop and then go the other way before they see you
Hence why I posted it as an answer to the inquiry “What survival myth is completely wrong and can get you killed?”
This rule does not necessarily look wrong - in a civilized country.
Drink alcohol to stay warm.
Is that an actual, existing survival myth?
I mean, it definitely makes you warmer. In that it shunts your blood to the outer layer of your body, warming your skin and making you feel less cold. Problem is, this actually makes you lose heat more rapidly, and increases your susceptibility to hypothermia. But since you can experience “drink alcohol, feel warmer” yourself, the myth will probably persist indefinitely.
It is calories too, so can be drunk for energy if you’re out of food.
It actually was the case, in the olden days.
The classic image of St. Bernard rescue dogs carrying tiny barrels of brandy for the benefit of hypothermic travellers was a myth though.
Would make for a fun tag for a St. Bernard though, instead of a bone use a barrel shaped tag.
I don’t know how much so practically, but it perseveres at least in tongue in cheek references to “putting on your whiskey jacket”
TL;DR: If you post here, please emphasise the true text, e.g. put that up front!
I’ve noticed that I don’t remember text literally, so if a post says “the sky isn’t green” then I might tomorrow remember having read something about the sky and green but was this the correction or was this the myth? Was it even in the myths thread or did I read it elsewhere?
Better for me to read only true things, e.g.: “the sky is blue, don’t believe the myth about a different color”. Or mention the myth is in a spoiler tag or elsewhere in the text where it doesn’t act like the headline or main takeaway
Apparently most people have this, see e.g.: https://online.ucpress.edu/collabra/article/6/1/38/114468/Repetition-Increases-Perceived-Truth-Even-for
PCP makes you better at fighting cops
it makes you stronger too.
ask AI slop for advise
When caught in a Thunderstorm: Never lie flat on the ground. Crouch down in a ball-like position with your head tucked and hands over your ears so that you are down low with minimal contact with the ground. The discharge ends in the ground, and a person lying flat is at great risk of being caught in the discharge channel.
source:https://seecheck.org/index.php/2025/08/17/no-you-shouldnt-lie-on-the-ground-during-a-thunderstorm/
https://www.iii.org/article/lightning-safety-10-myths-and-the-facts
If you are at home when the threat of a tornado happens, go to the basement or the most inside room (most walls between you and outside).
But my main reason for posting: IF you are out and encounter a tornado, if you are far enough away to avoid it, avoid it, but if it’s close or if it doesn’t appear to be moving (meaning it’s moving straight for you), then you need to seek a ditch or low ground. A ditch is best - being even slightly below the level of the ground around you GREATLY reduces the wind and debris, which is what will kill you. Something like a culvert can be good, although not so small that a piece of debris could trap you in rising water… but a tornado is typically gone quickly relative to flash flooding.
The myth is that stopping under a bridge is good - even “better” is climbing the slope to hidde under the girders of the bridge. Sometimes you might survive, but people have died - packed in with mud and debris blow by the tornado. This also elevates you more into the windfield, which is bad.
Ideally you don’t want to be close to cars, much less inside them.
I’m not sure if you are rattling off myths that we should avoid perpetuating, or if you are rattling off good useful life-saving tips 🤔
Well, I identified the myth by saying “The myth is…”
If you get bit by a venomous snake sucking the venom out doesn’t work and is likely to make things worse.
Run outside into the street during an earthquake
I think it very much depends on the building
Best bet is get in a bathtub. Second best, under a doorframe.
Wait, where in that priority list is tables?
I’m not in an earthquake-prone area so I have no idea but I thought the default advice was to get under a table or outside the building if you can make it. Never heard the bathtub… is that a myth you’re mentioning or?
A table won’t hold up when parts of the roof collapse on it.
It’ll buckle and you’ll be crushed under it.
A bathtub is a big bowl made out of a single piece of enameled steel, iron, polymer or fiberglass.
Its shape won’t change if the roof collapses on top of it.
Rescuers might have to free you but you’re less likely to get squished.Blows my mind that debris falling freely on your head is the option to choose over covering yourself with a hard shell because the roof is more likely to come down in a way where a strong U shape around you gives better survival chances
