Spray’s Barely Repelling If Misused, Pepper Repellent Actually Can Attract Bears, Researcher Says

It’s the kind of discovery that makes bear country veterans shudder: Turns out the pepper spray hikers count on for bear protection actually can attract the beasts.

U.S. Geological Survey researcher Tom Smith discovered the attraction in November while working on the Kulik River in Katmai National Park and Preserve about 240 miles southwest of Anchorage.

Smith, who was there to record brown bear activity around salmon streams, became suspicious about the link between the powerful red pepper extract and bears when he saw a bear rolling on a rope sprayed more than a week earlier.

Intrigued, Smith jumped from his observation post and sprayed the shore with repellent. Several bears approached and began rolling in the red pepper extract.

“It’s a 500-pound cat with a ball of catnip” is how he describes the scene.

For Alaskans who enjoy hiking in the backcountry, or for anyone else who spends a lot of time in bear country, this isn’t good news. The pepper spray is considered by many to be a good alternative to carrying a powerful shotgun or rifle, and tests have shown that it will stop a charging bear if it’s sprayed in the bear’s eyes, nose and mouth.

More troubling, Smith said, is the risk that a can of spray that has been used may have enough residue on its exterior to attract bears.

Sunday, an Alaska oil industry worker was killed in an extremely rare midwinter attack by a bear. Audelio Luis Cortes died nearly instantly when a brown bear emerged from its den and bit his head. Cortes was part of a team laying a seismic line near the Kenai Peninsula community of Sterling.

It’s important to note, Smith said, that if the repellent is used correctly, bears aren’t a problem. He says he will continue to carry the spray while he’s in the field.

For the company that first marketed the spray, Counterassault of Bigfork, Mont., word that it attracts bears doesn’t have it worried, said general manager Pride Johnson.

The company’s packaging stresses that the spray is supposed to be shot into the face of an aggressive bear.

Still, he fields calls from people who treat it more like mosquito spray. “We’ve had some parents spray it on their children because it says ‘bear repellent,”’ Johnson said Wednesday.

The company has begun to change the wording on its packaging to “bear deterrent” instead of “repellent,” he said.

Until Smith can conduct more detailed tests about how much of the pepper spray is needed to attract a bear, his preliminary results ought to caution hikers and others, said Stephen Herrero, a bear expert at the University of Calgary in Alberta and the author of a book on bear attacks.

“They are going to have to think twice about how they store it, especially at night,” Herrero said. “The big question of course is: Do you sleep with it under your pillow?”

Smith suggests treating a used can like food by putting it in a bear-proof container; he suggests keeping an unused can in the tent while camping.

He plans more testing next summer. In the meantime, he has collected enough anecdotal evidence to be confident he’s on the right track.

A week before he first spotted a bear rolling on the shore along the Kulik River, Smith watched a floatplane pilot spray the pontoons in an effort to keep bears away. The next morning, the floats had been chewed up.

And a camper at Katmai told Smith he had sprayed a circle around his tent to keep brown bears away. “It was like a salt lick,” the camper told Smith. “There were bears everywhere.

“Little did we know this stuff was like mayonnaise on baloney,” Smith said.