I've been a few feet away from the Kodiak subspecies (Ursus arctos middendorff). It was a grizzly-watching trip conducted by licensed guides, who carried a rifl

I've been a few feet away from the Kodiak subspecies (Ursus arctos middendorff). It was a grizzly-watching trip conducted by licensed guides, who carried a rifle. I don't actually know how comparable these are to the Lower 48 bears -- my impression is that on Kodiak there is so much salmon and so few people that the bears are less aggressive: https://photos.app.goo.gl/mXMHAjDyQNDjFqjw8 https://photos.app.goo.gl/mXMHAjDyQNDjFqjw8 What you said about playing dead does resonate: I remember one episode where about five of us were sitting very still, and the bear was nosing around about five feet from us. I don't think it was at all curious about us. In other cases, the guides would just raise their hands and shout at the bears and scare them away. On the other hand, I watched a nature TV show, also shot on Kodiak, where the guy noticed one bear that was giving him the stink-eye. Occasionally one will take a dislike to you and you don't want to stick around.