Many of the best wilderness areas for backpacking to be found in North America are also home to bears. While the largest of North American bears, the grizzly bear, is limited in its range the northern Rocky Mountains and Alaska, the more common black bear can be found in many wild areas from coast to coast, and from the Canadian border to the Deep South. All bears are large carnivores capable of seriously injuring or killing humans. Bear attacks are fortunately quite rare, or else wilderness travel would be much more dangerous than it is.
Most bear attacks against humans occur because of one of these three circumstances: The first reason is the bear is surprised by the person intruding in its territory and the attack is a natural defensive reaction. The second reason is a female bear with cubs feels threatened by a human approaching too close and attacks to protect her young. The third reason is that bears are predators and opportunistic feeders and may become habituated to being fed by well-meaning but uninformed humans so that they began to associate humans with food. They may come into a wilderness traveler’s camp looking for food and attack the person instead. In rare cases bears have been known to kill humans for the purpose of eating them. Surprisingly, even though most people consider the larger grizzly to be the most dangerous bear, most predatory attacks on humans have been by black bears.
Avoiding dangerous encounters with bears is simpler if you understand these reasons why bears sometimes attack humans. In the first scenario mentioned above, a bear is surprised by a human suddenly appearing at close range. You can eliminate the possibility of this happening by making noise as you hike through the woods, especially in areas of dense undergrowth where a bear may not see you until you are upon it. Talking loudly to other members of your group is one way to make enough noise. If you are alone you can whistle a tune as you walk or wear some sort of bell on your pack that will constantly make enough noise to let a bear know you are coming. Most bears are instinctively shy of humans and will be long gone before you even see them if you let them know you are coming.
The second scenario, where a mother bear attacks in defense of her young can be avoided by staying well clear of any bears you might see. Although bear cubs are cute and fluffy, don’t make the stupid mistake some have made and attempt to get close to them for pictures. The mother bear is sure to be nearby, and if she sees you near her babies she will charge with all the ferocity she can muster.
The third type of bear attack, where food is involved, is the most problematic for backcountry campers. You have to carry food if you are camping, and no matter what you carry, a bear’s incredible sense of smell will easily detect it and lead it to your camp if it cares to investigate. In known bear country, it is imperative to take precautionary measures with food around camp; even though these measures can be quite inconvenient. The most important thing to remember is to keep food out of and away from your tent. Many bear attacks have occurred in the middle of the night when a bear tore into a sleeping camper’s tent to get at the food inside. Try to make camp in bear country well before dark so you can complete your preparations while there is light to see by. It is much safer to do your cooking well away from the sleeping area, so find a spot at least 200 yards away from your tent to cook, eat dinner and wash your dishes. When your are done cooking and cleaning up, leave all the food, condiments, cooking oil or anything that has an odor of food in the cooking area. The only way to protect your food from bears is to hang it at least 15 feet above the ground. To do this you will need a stuff sack or other bag to put it in and some long lengths of line. You can throw a line weighted with a stone over an overhanging tree limb, but the best method is to first suspend one line horizontally between two trees and then throw the line across the middle so the food bag can be hoisted up to the midpoint, far enough away from the trees that a climbing bear can’t reach it.
All these precautions are aggravating and time consuming, but if you follow this advice you will be much safer when traveling in bear country. Remember that in most all cases, wild animals are more afraid of you than you are of them, but it pays not to gamble when it comes to bigger creatures like bears.
