I grew up in western Montana and have had 2 close up encounters with black bears and been stalked by a cougar/mountain lion/puma. Black bears are pretty skitti

I grew up in western Montana and have had 2 close up encounters with black bears and been stalked by a cougar/mountain lion/puma. Black bears are pretty skittish. If you make noise, they'll likely run away, unless theyve became acclimated to humans. Still, they can be dangerous, but rarely are, unless youre around a sow and her cubs. You do not want to fuck with a sow and her cubs. Best you can do there is slowly back away, ensuring you never get between the sow and the cubs. If you do get between a sow and her cubs, you're in for a bad day. Do not run. Black bears are mostly scavengers, but running away can trigger their instinct to view you as prey. Best stand your ground, make yourself as big as possible and a helluva a lot of noise. I did this once from about 30-40 yards away, and it worked. Couldn't tell if it was male or female, but there were no cubs around. It did rear up up on its hind legs amd grunt and growl at me, but after about 30 seconds of it grunting and me yelling and waving about like a lunatic, it dropped back down on all 4 legs and plondered off. My second bear encounter happened about 2am on our back porch. We didnt have AC, so in the summer, we'd open up all the doors and windows, only having screen doors keeping critters out. Well, I was up late reading and I heard a big metallic crash from the kitchen. Figuring either the dogs or cats knocked some pans off the stove, got up, without my glasses to investigate. Seeing nothing amiss in the kitchen, I flipped on the back porch light and open the screen door. Technically never saw it on account of no glasses, being near sighted and a near moonless night, and it being a black bear, but I heard it. Soon as I flipped on the light and openned the door, I heard a distinct bear grunt and heard it plod off. It could have easily walked right through the screen into our home, putting itself between me and the loaded gun at the door. The one that creeped me put the most was being stalked by the cougar. I was 11 at the time, hiking with my dad who was hunting for deer/elk. We had spent several hours hiking up an old logging road with maybe an inch of fresh snow on the ground. We didnt see any tracks at all until we turned around. After a short while, we noticed the cougar tracks that had been following ours. We never saw the cat, and some nearly 30 years later, still sends shivers down my spine. Regarding attacks by a cougar, they generally only attack children, and from an ambush position. Adults may be attacked if the cat is threatened or in poor health. You generally need to do anything to fend of a cougar as they generally wont approach an adult human. Things you can do to prevent attacks is to keep brush and grass trimmed around your home, especially if you have small children. They are ambush predators and dont like being exposed. As an adult, if you are attacked, fight back, and go for the face. In the heat of the summer, they often seek out cool spots such as window wells or garages.