Coyotes, Wolves, Mountain Lions, Alligators, Sharks; all something I’m familiar with, but Bears…
Hell No!
Pro tip:
It works on humans as well.
1 Like
WTH!!! I wonder what time this happened yesterday?!
I was trained with bear spray (many years ago), and never ever used it, despite seeing many bears in the woods. Usually the bears go into the other direction when they see us, and we head in the opposite direction!
We have sometimes watched bears in our own yard, resting peacefully, and when that happens, we take care not to disturb their rest.
I loved reading Charlie Russell’s books on how he developed particular friendships with a few bears (albeit he firmly dissuaded people from doing this, as it takes a long time, love, and patience to develop trust with any one individual): https://charlierussellbears.com/
The bear appreciation centre in USA talks about the history of human fear for these incredible animals: https://bear.org/bear-facts/why-people-fear-bears/ I would rather see respect replace fear. So much of what’s going on nowadays is lacking of respect for other living creatures, and I find myself wondering if once the sacredness for other living beings returns to the human psyche, would the transhuman agenda lose its grip. e.g., As Below – So Above.
4 Likes
With all due respect - NO THANK YOU! LOL!
Got bluff charged once, stood my ground and kept telling black bear how handsome he was . We both backed away.
Hiking in Glacier NP however, my spray was holstered and ready to go.
3 Likes
You sweet-talker you! LOL!
3 Likes
If only it worked on the ladies.
3 Likes
@uintatom: That must have been an extremely unnerving experience for you! I don’t blame you for carrying bear spray with you (even if, as is the case with us, you may hopefully not need to use it).
Luckily for my spouse and myself, who love being out in the woods, we’ve never had that kind of encounter, although we know people who have. Our friend, a (fearless!) priest, who often hikes/camps completely alone for days in the wilderness was stalked by a black bear, and he fended him/her off by throwing his pack at the bear and then running away. Someone else we know was mauled by a black bear, and after that experience never went into the woods again.
My spouse and I are animal lovers (doesn’t matter what animal, we are fascinated by them, and love them all – ditto for plants and fungi), and love stories about how people communicate with all kinds of different animals. We wonder if a fascination for the living world is ancient and natural (and perhaps “schooled” out of us by our modern anti-life culture), this instinctive human curiosity for other creatures, which we hold to be sacred and divine.
For years, we have been following stories of individuals who develop friendships with individuals of other species. Any kind of interspecies friendship interests us deeply, and we try to learn from those. We think that animals have a lot of things to teach us, if we are patient enough. As with humans, one cannot force an unwanted relationship on others – friendship both within and among species is something that happens between specific individuals who connect somehow with each other, and happens slowly, and rarely.
So, when I see articles like this, about the young man and his girlfriend who were eaten by bears, while trying to make some kind of a theatrical point, I wonder if perhaps they tried to force themselves into situations where they were not wanted: Tragic story of 'grizzly man' and girlfriend eaten alive by bear while filming entire ordeal
Charlie Russell fascinated us with his bear friendship stories (as described in his books), but he emphasized how the friendships were on an individual basis, and that not all individuals are open to being friends.
Then, we found this documentary interesting, too, about how another man, Charlie Vandergaw, related to bears. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTw7qps1WG8
It’s the friendship part that intrigues us – how interspecies individuals are able to relate to one another in a plane other than fear. We’ve never tried to make friends with a bear, but do choose to leave them in peace when they are in our yard. We never yell at them (as we have never had any cause to do so), and what most often happens is that once they are aware of our presence, they move away. We feel lucky that we’ve never had to go through the experience of mauling, or, as with yourself, even the bluff (And it was great how you dealt with that. I’d maybe pass out. Actually, we knew of one man who encountered a grizzly in the woods coming towards him, and he passed out – when he came to, the bear was gone, and he lived to tell the tale).
1 Like
Luckily I had read so much bear safety stuff that I reacted just as I should have.