Bear Safety Tips

Practice what you need to do in different attack situations. Rehearse, with friends or family various situations in order to be prepared in a real life threatening situation.
Traveling in bear country can be quite exhilarating. Although most bear attacks can be avoided, there is always a chance of encountering a bear. The following is a compilation of the latest information collected from various wildlife specialists, bear encounters, and articles featuring bear encounters. Although nothing is 100% guaranteed effective, here are some tips that might prove to be useful in an encounter.

Always check with park officials, rangers, or other authorities regarding the area you intend to travel for possible bear activity. Always make sure others know where you are going to be in the back country. Learn to identify the signs of bear activity and avoid using these areas. Typical signs of grizzly bear use include: fresh tracks a grizzlies claw marks extend farther away from pads than black bears), scat greater than 2 inches in diameter (most likely a grizzly's), areas where the ground may be tore up from bears scavenging, and partially consumed or buried animal carcasses.

space, which varies from animal to animal. If something or someone penetrates this zone, a response in the form of a bluff charge, bodily contact, or outright attack may result. Often times grizzly bears will essentially ignore people until a person enters into a bear's "personal space". Even groups as large as 100 people have been ignored by grizzly bears until one of the group gets too close. Most bears are timid enough to flee a possible encounter if they sense the presence of something or someone soon enough to leave the area undetected. On the other hand, when a bear is surprised, the bear may see you as a threat, forcing an immediate response.
A person who runs when frightened by a bear may trigger a chase response. One bear will even chase another if it runs. Bears that stand their ground when confronted by other bears usually aren't attacked, and bears that behave submissively have a lower incidence of being attacked as well. A grizzly bear rarely wants to kill a human. Considering the damage a grizzly is capable of inflicting on a human, wounds resulting from bear attacks are often nothing more than superficial bites, scrapes, and lacerations. The evidence is very clear that grizzlies do no t try to kill a human as a result of a close encounter, they simply try to remove a perceived threat. The injuries that occur are more a function of what the human does to resist, rather than what the bear is capable of doing. Of course, a grizzly entering a tent represents a predatory event which is behaviorally very different than a close encounter situation.
Young grizzlies can pose another danger. Often these bears have just left their mother and rank low on the hierarchical scale. Larger, more dominant bears often push these juveniles into marginal habitat. To survive, young bears do a lot of exploring. If these bears start using campgrounds as foraging areas, they may quickly become dangerous to people camping in them. In extremely rare instances, young grizzlies will even key onto people as potential prey.
Black bears seem to rely more on sheer bluffing than on charging and mauling. Those rare instances in which a black bear presses an attack can probably be grouped into two categories: First, a female protecting her cubs, particularly if she is also habituated and food-conditioned; or second, a bear that has no experience with humans and may regard them as possible prey.

charges" where the bear stops short of you, veers off and runs right past you. A bear might bluff charge many times before leaving. A bear may also bluff charge a few times and then come at you at a different angle. A bear that does charge, and knocks you down, is attempting to remove a threat. The bear will use as much force as it believes is necessary to remove that threat. A bear can instantly reach speeds of 30 to 35 miles per hour in a matter of a split second. Never try to outrun a bear, it will only make matters worse.

The situation of a bear that enters your camp is to be handled differently than a bear surprised on the trail. They might not have any fear of humans and have probably become used to eating human food and garbage. These bears are dangerous, and are no longer fearful of being in close proximity to humans. Make sure that you store your food properly. A bear that finds no food in camp is more likely to become disinterested and move on to better pickings. Try to remain calm, avoid making direct eye contact and speak softly to the bear. If the bear is within 10 to 15 feet, spray the bear with your UDAP Bear Deterrent Pepper Spray. If it is safe to do so, try slowly backing out of the area while looking for suitable trees to climb. Make sure you have enough time to climb a tree before attempting it. Make sure you can be up the tree at least 14 feet before the bear reaches you. Climb as high as you can and stay there until the bear is gone. Be aware that some grizzlies can climb trees and all black bears can.

a bear gets within 10 to 15 feet of your tent, or attempts to enter it, spray the bear with your UDAP Bear Deterrent Pepper Spray and fight back. Report the incident as soon as possible, even if the bear simply walks through the camp. We do not recommend that you remain in that particular campsite another night.

Get your UDAP Bear Deterrent Spray ready, and then, look out of the tent and check out the bear with your flash light. First, make sure it's a bear, not one of your hiking partners or other harmless animal wandering in the night.

This is the worst possible situation. It very rarely happens, but there are a few documented cases. At night attack usually comes from a predatory bear. If you act like prey, you become prey.
Once more, don't panic, run, or scream, but don't remain calm. Instead, fight back with everything you have. Don't lie still in your sleeping bag. Don't play dead. Use the UDAP Bear Deterrent Pepper Spray. Make loud metallic noise. Use an air horn. Shine lights in the bears eyes. Temporarily blind the bear with the flash of your camera. Use any deterrent you brought with you. Unload on the bear with everything you have. Anything goes. Use whatever physical resistance you can.

Bears attack other bears, other animals, and people because they have genetically programmed types of aggressive behaviors that pertain to population regulation, survival defense, and predatory aggression. This doesn't mean that there aren't other factors involved in some attacks, or that people don't contribute to some attacks.
Though we have established the fact that bears are unpredictable, there are four situations that are most likely to cause a bear to attack. By knowing what they are we can work to avoid getting into these types of situations.
1. When a person encounters a protective sow with cubs. An average of 78% of all attacks are related to these encounters.
2. When a bear is surprised, or startled.
3. When a human gets too close to a bear's food supply.
4. Predatory Bear (When the bear intends to eat you).
Regardless of the situation, surprise is one of the leading causes of bear attacks. A surly solitary bear, who is startled by a hiker on a trail, may run away or aggressively confront the hiker. Most injury encounters with bears occur when the person gets within 55 yards before the bear is aware of his presence. Mark's experience changed his life. Since then, he has dedicated himself to improving a product designed to safeguard people against maulings, and to help them better coexist with wildlife. In a short time, his 225 - 260 gram UDAP Bear Deterrent Pepper Spray cans have generated numerous testimonials from grateful customers like the following: See Testimonials

Many hunters who have killed animals and returned the next morning to pack out the meat, have been suddenly confronted by an aggressive bear who had claimed the kill overnight. If a kill site appears disturbed, but no bear is seen, it's best to back off because the bear may be lying in cover nearby. A bear on a kill may refuse to back off, even when shots are fired into the ground nearby, and many sportsmen have been forced to relinquish their harvested game animal to a protective bear guarding its food supply. Smart sportsmen who harvest big game animals in grizzly country try to pack out the meat the same day of the kill, or they carry the quartered carcass to a safe spot a few hundred yards from the bloody kill site and then hang the quarters high in a tree.

UDAP Industries, Inc. would like to thank the following for their input on "Bear Safety Tips" web page & booklet. We value your expertise.