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I'm a moderately educated on hiking around cougars and bears. But I'm by no means an expert. Cougars and Black Bears -> when encountered you want to appear as
by bargl 7y ago
I'm a moderately educated on hiking around cougars and bears. But I'm by no means an expert.
Cougars and Black Bears -> when encountered you want to appear as big and menacing as possible. You scare them off. AKA if you have a coat you hold it up like a cape to make yourself appear really big. The best way to approach a cougar is to scare it off.
Brown Bears -> Make sure there are no cubs between you and the mother bear and back the fuck away. They are faster and climb better than you. Don't try to scare them just go away. (Please read up on this before doing it) but with a bear I believe playing dead is the best way to go when attacked. This is similar to a bull I believe. A good deterrent with a bear is bear mace, if Hiking in a place where there is a bear I'd suggest taking some.
Also there's a ton more to avoiding bear meetings but you mostly need to worry if you see a cub bear.
Edit: if you do start hiking please please do read up on this. Cougars and bears can and do kill hikers even when treated properly. While not the biggest risk to your life in the US, it's still a good idea to go forewarned. Also changed wording in first sentence.
Edit 2: Changed advice to specify brown bear and black bear.
- syntheticnature 7y agoWorth noting that your bear advice is for brown bears (mostly Western US); black bears (mostly Eastern US), you want to scare off in much the same fashion as cougars, though with the bit where you check for cubs first.
- bargl 7y agoThanks for the additional info, I got my advice in brown bear territory.
- dheera 7y agoDepends on where in the west. In California there are lots of black bears but no grizzly bears. BTW in case it isn't clear to readers: brown bear === grizzly bears and are massive black bears are relatively much smaller Black bears can be either black or dark brown in color and that doesn't make them a brown bear.
- Ididntdothis 7y agoAlso if a cougar ever attacks you are supposed to fight back. You can also throw rocks and sticks at them. With bears you should make noise and if they attack, play dead (not sure if this is different between black and brown bears. ) Should add: the number of actual attacks is really low and deadly ones are even rarer. Probably pretty much every activity you do during a hike is more dangerous than cougars or bears. Things like driving, dehydration or tripping and falling. The most dangerous wild animal is probably a tick.
- dheera 7y agoI was told by rangers to fight, not play dead with a black bear. At the same time they are much less likely to attack than a grizzly bear.
- sixstringtheory 7y agoI wrote out a whole response and did a search to double check myself, and honestly this is a much more comprehensive source. It has everything I was going to say and much much more: https://www.wikihow.com/Survive-a-Bear-Attack https://www.wikihow.com/Survive-a-Bear-Attack. Still: - stay calm - don't run - know when you're in bear country, and talk or sing at a good volume, especially in thick foliage - brown vs black bears _do_ behave differently, know how to ID them - read the guide I linked! - talk to rangers if they're available wherever you're going I've seen bears running and climbing trees, and it's simply incredible what they're capable of. Above all, cultivate a healthy respect of them before going into their home...
- dheera 7y agoI always carry bear spray with me if not with a large group. Bears worry me less because they're usually after human food, not humans, and I'd have time to get my bear spray out. Cougars, while statistics show they are not much of a threat on average, psychologically worry me more because their attack mode is ambushing, and you wouldn't see its face at first if it really was sure about attacking you.