Expert Teaches Bear Etiquette To Keep Hikers From Being Eaten

Even people who scorn the notion of etiquette begin to see its value when Wayne Buchanan explains how it can keep you from being eaten by a grizzly.

More people are crushed to death by tumbling soft drink machines than are killed by bears, Buchanan points out, but our fear of bears overrides logic.

“It’s a primordial fear of being eaten,” Buchanan told a Friday evening crowd at the Museum of the Rockies.

To help reduce fear of bears, yet instill a proper respect for them, Buchanan teaches courses in “bear etiquette.” He speaks as president of the Great Bear Foundation, which held its annual meeting in Bozeman over the weekend.

You offend a grizzly by intruding in its space: You have behaved badly and it wants to teach you some manners.

“You’ve breached bear etiquette, and they’re disciplining you like they would another bear,” Buchanan explained. “It’s just that we break and tear a lot easier.”

Buchanan’s first rule is to avoid bears. Don’t get too close. If you see scat, tracks or other signs, think hard: Do you really want to hike there that day?

“Make some intelligent decisions,” he said.

Also make noise, approaching blind turns cautiously and paying attention.

“They don’t always charge from where you can see them,” he noted.

Also keep a clean camp with cooking, food storage and sleeping areas widely separated, and carry pepper spray with at least 10 percent active ingredient. The antimugger stuff may not be strong enough.

In a surprise encounter, try to hold your ground. Grizzlies often don’t know what to make of people, but if you start running “you will change instantly from an unknown entity to prey.”

You can spread out your jacket or shirt to make yourself appear bigger. If you are with other people, bunching up side by side also makes you look more formidable. You could also try holding hands, he added: It might keep somebody from bolting.

He recommended holding your ground even if charged, which bears sometimes do repeatedly in attempts to frighten challengers. This can be difficult, he conceded.

“It’s easy for me to say that. It’s hard to do it. There’s a real good reason to be fearful here.”

But if the bear does attack, Buchanan recommends you forget about trying to pull off a bluff. It’s then time for submissiveness.

Curl into a fetal position, cover your neck with your hands and try to be nonthreatening. The bear may bite you, claw you or swat you around, and he may come back several times to do it some more.

But the sooner the bear determines you are not a threat - being silent and motionless helps persuade him - the sooner he will quit tearing you apart.

Being quiet at such times is “a really tough thing to do,” Buchanan agreed. “The stress you’re going to be under is extreme.”

Still, grizzly bears kill very few people. Most mauling victims survive, although they often need extensive surgery.

“If they want to kill you, it takes about three seconds and you’re dead,” he said.