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.
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.
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