This may be an old topic but I can't find any info about it in search.
I purchased a 230g can of Counter Assault Bear Deterrent today at REI. It has a range of up to 30ft but at almost 12 oz, it just seems a little too much for something I will probably and hopefully never use. I've seen smaller cans of pepper spray elsewhere and my question to everyone is, what type and size does everyone here carry and recommend?????????? Thanks

http://www.rei.com/product/623173

I use the one you bought. As far as I'm concerned, if I ever have to actually use it, more is better. I don't count ounces however, so the weight and size aren't an issue to me. You can find smaller cans out there, though I've only ever purchases one can of spray and that was years ago and I haven't paid much attention since then.

I don't carry any at all, but I am usually just out in winter, so it doesn't matter that much. Counter Assault is the one spray I see recommended. Anything else may do nothing more than make the bear really mad at you. Not exactly what you want.

Read this-
http://www.centerforwildlifeinformation.org/BeBearAware/BearSpray/bearspray.html
and this-
http://tinyurl.com/cnetoh

I carry a full size bear version.. not a little "people" version.

Thankyou Tom for directing me to those Very informative article's as well as the video that should probably be shown or even included with every purchase.

The Service supports the pepper spray policy of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, which
states that bear spray is not a substitute for following proper bear avoidance safety techniques, and that bear
spray should be used as a deterrent only in an aggressive or attacking confrontation with a bear.
Like seatbelts, bear spray saves lives. But just as seatbelts don’t make driving off a bridge safe, bear spray
is not a shield against deliberately seeking out or attracting a grizzly bear. No deterrent is 100% effective,
but compared to all others, including firearms, proper use of bear spray has proven to be the best method for
fending off threatening and attacking bears, and for preventing injury to the person and animal involved.

When it comes to bear spray, size does matter. One of the most important features when assessing sprays is the amount of spray contained in the canister. This shows up in two measurements; the weight of the canister (or net weight) and the the time of spray, i.e., how long does it last.

Counter Assault, one of the two or three sprays that one should consider IMO, puts out two sizes. A reason for the larger size? What if you run into the bear again? Or his buddy downstream? It's probably valid logic that, the denser the bear population and/or the deeper you are into bear country (# of days from trailhead), the larger the quantity of spray that should be carried.

This is one of the best times of year to buy Counter Assault. For the last few years, REI has put it on steep discount during the May membership sale.

FB

Don't quote me on this, but I think that's the minimal size that can be legally sold as "bear spray". From what I know, you're supposed to use an entire can during one spray, too. You wouldn't want to be shy about hosing a big bruin in the face.

Compared to other forms of protection (big guns, electric fences), that's pretty lightweight insurance. It's probably the best option for most people. I've not direct experience with bear spray, but all of the studies and anecdotal evidence I've heard have been very positive.

The only negative thing I've heard about it is that it can attract bears to the area after the can's been used, even the bear that got sprayed. This might be a myth; dunno. If spray gets used (on purpose or otherwise), it'd be a good idea to stash the can in a odor proof sack along with your food & toiletries.

I recommend......no bear spray at all. IMHO the potential danger does not justify the weight/expense. And that's assuming you can even access and deploy it in an effective manner.

Simply carrying the spray is only a part of the equation. Training and practice is the other. Read this quote from a spray manufacturer's own website:

"Bear attacks happen as fast as lightning!!! Most situations where you will need to use your UDAP Bear Spray will be in a close surprise encounter. Practice, at least seven times going for your spray, or until you can reach it in a split second’s time when needed. You may want to practice actually shooting from your holster with one of our inert cans. These cans have the same spraying power as our regular sprays without the hot pepper. For training purposes only, inert cans be purchased at half the price of our regular spray, we suggest also using outdated cans for this purpose. In a bear attack situation, we do know this: you will panic if you have not been trained ahead how you will think and react. 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."

Numbers I would love to see: The number of people actually attacked by bears but saved from injury or death directly and solely by bear spray, versus the number of people who carry bear spray and never use it.

Of course I may think differently if I were to frequent grizz country on regular basis.

Hi, Trailrunner.

Last year a group of bear researchers published a study on the "Efficacy of Bear Deterrent Spray in Alaska" that looked at the question you asked. It appeared in the Journal of Wildlife Management. You can find the abstract online. Basically, when they reviewed 72 incidents between people and bears in which spray was used (most of them involving brown bears), they found that spray worked in the 90th percentiles. Some instances were charges, others were bears being hazed from food or garbage. (It didn't look at how many people carried and didn't use it...hmmm...that would be pretty hard to determine, I'd think.)

The lead researcher, Tom Smith, has done a lot of research on bear attacks in Alaska and on bear spray in particular. You can find some of his work at this site, including an FAQ on bear spray:

Alaska Bear Research Center

Yes, a good reason to carry the larger can despite the weight is that you might need all of it or you might need to use it more than once. In the study, several bears returned more than once when food was involved.

Wearing it in a holster on your belt makes it easy to access when you need it, rather than fumbling for it in your pack or elsewhere. ( I know this from nerve-racking experience.) It's pretty easy to flip the safety off; you can even aim it from the holster. Sometimes the sound and the cloud are what scare bears away--I know someone that happened with. It's also designed so you don't have to aim it specifically, just in their direction.

EPA recommends four brands in particular, which you can also Google.

And it's true that bears are attracted to capsicum if it's sprayed as "repellent" on objects or even on the ground (for the same reason we like Tabasco). It's not a good idea to test the can in the backcountry for that reason.

Absolutely I agree that whether it makes sense to carry it depends on where you live and what you think the risks are. To be honest, I take it on road trips, too, for the predators I'm most worried about.

FWIW, I never go hiking without it. It adds that extra margin of safety, and it can save bears from being destroyed if they're involved in a mauling that could have been avoided with a deterrent or common sense. I live in Alaska, and situations like that happen all the time.

Sorry for the long post. Cheers!

Ahhh...the equation is incomplete. One of the variables is missing!

Bear spray also protects the bear.

Many if not most 'aggressive encounters' are surprise ones. That is, the hiker and the bear come into sudden and unintentional close contact. Sometimes it's a turn in the trail, sometimes it's stumbling upon a food cache, often it's a cub on one side and mama on the other. The point, here, is that the encounters aren't the result of an intentionally aggressive bear...seldom are the encounters the result of predatory actions (talking griz and black bear here).

None the less, very often when a bear mauls a hiker that bear faces two alternatives; relocation or euthanization. Not always...but it's common. If bear spray can deter an attack to the point where the hiker is unharmed that bear has a much better chance to live another day.

Bear spray works. Bear spray has prevented potential human injury. Bear spray can spare the life of the bear.

Not bad for 12+ oz.

Just remember the bear spray is used on the bear! I was talking to a clerk at a local backpacking store and someone came in there and purchased the bear spray... and then proceeded to spray it all over themselves (Like Off! Bug spray). They swelled up and had to be hospitalized. Luckily they did it at the trailhead.

Great story!! Bears are very intelligent creatures. The same can't be said for all backpackers.

FB

How many wrecks were you in before you started carrying vehicle insurance?

you don't wait until after a catastrophe to prepare for it

Sorry, but the vehicle insurance example doesn't compare with bear spray. Bear spray is meant as a deterrent to prevent or lesson an attack. Vehicle insurance is meant to lower the expense AFTER the accident. It doesn't matter how much insurance coverage you have, it won't prevent the accident.
Notice that I am not saying for or against here, just that we need to compare apples to apples.

my point was that both events (bear attack, car wreck) are catastrophic, and taking steps to mitigate the damage is important.

perhaps a better analogy would be bear attack and carry bear spray vs car wreck, and buckling your seat belt?

Most of my hikes are into black bear territory in the Sierras. I don't carry bear spray. I really don't see a reason. The bears in California are more interested in getting your food and rarely are aggressive. The canisters are actually classified as a weapon and illegal to carry in national parks, though you would likely not see this restriction being enforced... I day hike in Yosemite nearly every weekend (and SEKI every other weekend) and see people carrying canisters the size of fire hydrants. None of them have used them, and none of them could use them - why stuff a bear can in the top side pocket of a tall pack out of your reach? The bear could be gnawing your leg off in the time it takes to get it off the top of your pack bag. Might as well not have it at all.

The very few bears I see on the trail will walk away from you. The bears you see in other wilder regions will run, like the wind. There have been more deer related injuries than bear attacks. I usually ask if people carry bear spray, why aren't they carrying a parachute, because the most frequent cause of death in Yosemite specifically are falls from high places...

I would probably carry bear spray in Wyoming, Montana, or any other region, however. Black bears are not grizzlies.

Agreed. Black bears will almost never attack humans unless you get between a mother and its cubs. Brown bears are much more easily provoked and may attack a person for their food or to defend territory. The most dangerous bears (I believe) are polar bears and I doubt bear spray would stop them. If you're hiking in very public areas (like the most visited sections of Yosemite) I would leave it at home. If you are in a more wilderness area where brown bears live, take it if it will make you feel safer... sometimes that feeling is worth it. People often don't need a belay when rock climbing... but it definitely makes that 200+ foot drop seem less imposing.

A law is probably going to be signed soon that will allow concealed weapons (with permit) to be carried in National Parks. I think this is a great law, because a firearm will definitely detour a bear (if used correctly). Not only that, but a great danger in many national parks is other people... especially around where I live (Northern California) with pot growers.

Weapons need to be concealed from bears?

I've been doing alot of hiking in bear territory this summer. So far I've seen a sow with 2 cubs, a set of juvie triplets, and a boar, all blackies. This is in the same area where there were 2 brownie maulings last summer (the trail where those maulings occurred has been closed). If I were by myself I'd carry bear spray, but my hiking partner carries an (unconcealed) .44 instead. We're hyper aware of all motion and sound (cow moose with new calves are also a big threat if you stumble on one) and have been scared by more than one black dog running up from behind us off-leash. There are an estimated 200-300 black bears living in the Anchorage bowl area, and probably several dozen brown bears. We know they are out there, probably closer than you'd ever know, so our #1 defense is awareness. Urban bears tend not to be startled by humans - our experience so far has been to have them flat out ignore us and go on their merry way (rather than dash off like bears who are unaccustomed to humans). Anyway, it certainly adds a new dimension to hiking, but it doesn't stop us.

MNS

P.S. We've also seen coyote (it was either that or a wolf, I'm not sure I really know how ot tell the difference) and lots of eagles.

There have been several black bear maulings in AK, and AFAIK they were not "self defense" attacks. Bears tend to get grumpy when they are hungry (which is what seems to have happened last year with the maulings we had), and as far as I'm concerned a bear is a bear is a bear.

MNS

I have been reading the posts about mountain lions and this one and a few others that tie into these. I love statistics and odds. They put every situation in clear, concise language that everyone can understand. If I start down a trail and 7589 people just exited that trail unscathed, well I guess I am about to become one of the unlucky few. These scales are obviously all encompassing and unbalanced. Take any wilderness accident situation, be it animal, fall, lost, broken bones, hypothermia, whatever. Now if we remove all of you, who are obviously very knowledgable with considerable experience, from the equation, the danger needle shifts dramatically and 1 out of every 50 backcountry hiker will die. ( statistically speaking ). In the same sense if we ban all teenagers and people over 75 from driving, the highway would be a dramatically safer place ( statistically speaking ). ok ok my point is I believe everything is a 50/50 proposition. 50 percent you and 50 percent unknown. What you do with your half can push the danger needle in either direction. As for me, and to get back on subject, when I go to Yellowstone next year I will be carrying 2 cans of bear spray. If Lori can tell me where to get one as big as a fire hydrant, I will carry that as a spare. I have pulled lint out of my bellybutton that weighed more than a can of bear spray. I just don't see the problem. But then I am totally without any experience.

Your odds of being hurt are the same as anyone else's. It's not like there's some wilderness lottery where you all draw straws and the 5,483,238 customer gets mauled by a bear. It's more like, you flip a coin, 50-50 chance of heads or tails, the next guy flips a coin, he also has a 50-50 chance. You have a very remote chance of being mauled by a bear who's having a bad hair day. So do I. I have a remote chance of having my car vandalized at the trailhead; so do you. There is a far better chance that the car will be vandalized than of a bear deciding to chew on me, however, the property damage is preferable to the hospital stay. So I completely understand your dilemma...

To really and truly decrease your odds of being bitten by a bear, make sure you carry those bear sprays in your hands like drawn guns, the entire time you are out there. They will do nothing for you in a pack pocket and a holster when your adrenalin is sky high will be nearly as difficult. Be very careful to look the bear in the eye before you fire; shooting at a rustle in the bushes may result in a SAR to the nearest hospital for your hiking buddy.

I'd be more afraid of moose than bears.

Coyotes are small and thin, usually scrawny, rough coated. Wolves are tall, bulky, furry - like a malamute or husky but rangy/long legged - more predatory, and probably less afraid of you than coyotes. Wolves can be black, gray, brown or red, and any shade in between depending on subspecies; most coyotes are gray/dun.

I do not believe the odds of getting hurt are the same for everyone. I realize the dangers are the same. The odds of someone like me, a greenhorn, getting lost,mauled,etc. are much greater than they are for someone with your experience. Therefore stats are basically worthless.

I am sure many of you know more about bears than I do. However, I would just like to clarify something. What we call “black bears” can also be brown or cinnamon in color. Grizzlies are brown but they are identified mostly by the hump on their backs. What I am saying is, just because a bear is brown don’t panic it isn’t necessarily a grizzly.

I have a can of bear spray that was given to me by a customer. I have never carried it for the reasons mentioned. It clips on a belt but seems quite heavy. I was told by a naturalist that bear spray is only effective 50% of the time. It is one of those things where one cannot know for sure what is best. There have been people attacked by black bears where I live but it isn’t all that common. We have bears walking into our fair city at this time of year.

Howie

one last personal thought on bear spray. Again, this is just a perspective from someone with zero experience.
Should I experience a bear encounter, will I even realize it before I am facedown on the trail wearing a bear rug?
Probably not...but just maybe.
If I do see the bear coming will I have time to get to my pepper spray before he gets me?
Probably not...but just maybe.
If he pulls up short, growling and snapping his teeth, thus giving me time to get the pepper spray out, and then he charges. Will I be competent and calm enough to spray him?
Probably not...but just maybe.
Should he just want to scare me and then run off, will my heart be able to slow down enough to avoid exploding?
Probably not...but just maybe.
Seems to me that just maybe is all I have. To each his own, but I intend to carry it. A little peace of mind goes a long way.

Marc
I sympathise with you and your fear of bears.

Why are you going to Yosemite? Partly to see the bears? Park bears are not a threat. In all the time I've spent in Yosemite, and that is considerable, I've never been closer than 100 to a bear and it was going the other way and totally ignoring me.

Assuming you will be attacked by a bear is just not reasonable. You are more apt to be struck by lightening (literally) or to have a rock fall on you. Its not worth the weight of belly button fuzz to carry bear spray. You can't even season your food with it.

Before I leave I want to say tht being dependent on technology and percieved safety through hardware is a false sense of security. Even if you are armed with a cannon, you still have to be skilled with its use, and have it available. The only real potentially dangerous animal enounters that I have had lasted a couple of seconds and there was no time to even draw a gun if I had one. My body language was all it took.

And bears are not in the slightest bit interested in YOU. This is kind of a narcicistic attitude that you are so special that you will be the 7585th person and you will be the one to be eaten. Worry about something more reasonable, like giardia.
Jim

I disagree. Bears stalk humans, way more often than we know. They do not attack very often, but they do take an interest in humans, for sure.

MNS

I really don't think that's true. A well read greenhorn has an edge over someone who just packed junk in a bag and goes out on a trail. Also, not many people get hurt, period. All you do is decrease an already small risk - but that's what we all do, when we research and read and ask questions.

If you really want to see a perfect example of how small a risk there is, consider Yosemite. Hordes of people who never hike more than a couple of miles in a mall flock to see it. It's not a theme park but a wilderness area - but the tourists don't understand that and they don't know how to prepare. The ratio of injuries to people going out in the trail system is shockingly low, considering all the knuckleheads who don't bother reading the leaflets they hand out at the gate, who feed the deer, try to take closeups of the bears by walking up to them, go to Half Dome in flipflops, head up the Mist Trail with half a liter of water, etc. etc. On one hike to Vernal Falls I saw a wedding party (four inch heels and tuxedos, great hiking gear!), nuns in full habit, ladies in burkhas and about a zillion and a half other people speaking at least ten different languages, none of them in any kind of hiking gear. A lot of them turned back at the lower bridge, but a surprising number make their way up one of the steepest, wettest trails in the park to Nevada Falls. The open granite is hot in temperate conditions because of the sun bouncing back in your face. People overheat and SAR frequently puts someone at the top to filter water for those who don't have enough.

You may feel like you're at more risk, but I doubt it. You're reading a backpacking forum, that gives you a leg up over millions of people who go to Yosemite who just go for a "short hike."

I am always a proponent of doing what makes you feel safe, however, so if you're not quite up to believing the black bears will avoid you most places, take what you need. Panicked people are more dangerous to themselves - making decisions under the influence of adrenalin can also be dangerous.

Time Out.
Do I think a can of bear spray (even one as big as a fire hydrant) will save me? of course not. Do I think it is even likely that I will ever need it?? No. Will packing an extra few ounces on my belt make my trip more relaxed and enjoyable ?? It will for me. Try to remember I do not have your experience. The only point I was trying to make about stats and odds are that they do not really show the real picture. Experienced hikers such as yourselves reduce your risk of injury through hands on knowledge. I have no way of proving it but I believe most unfortunate accidents happen to inexperienced hikers. I do not wish to be one of those unfortunate ones, which is why I am here, to learn all I can before I go into the backcountry, where the real learning begins.

Jim .. you might try just a pinch of bellybutton fuzz in your oatmeal. It is actually .. well .. indescribable.

I'm sure if we knew how many stalk us we'd all be wiggin' out back to the car in a hurry...

I found a perfect mountain lion track in the middle of a trail once. After eyeballing every rock and tree for a good ten minutes and seeing nothing, I waved and shouted "Hi, lion, just passing through!" and headed up the trail. If he wanted me, he would have had me already. I'm sure this has been repeated a thousand times since...

I was camped in a river bottom with a couple of friends. I spent several hours before bed trying to get rid of the feeling we were being watched - I kept looking around, up the canyon walls, into the trees, and never saw anything. I still think we were being watched to this day. Was it a person? It was a fairly well traveled area, in Henry Coe State Park. Was it a lion? Probably more likely that than a person. When it got dark, I stuck my ipod in my ears and listened to a relaxation mp3 until I fell asleep, slept soundly, and woke to a frost. Nothing happened. Nothing much I could have done if something had - hit it with a stick? Okay, my poles were close to hand, but will I have time to grab them? Or a gun? or a bear spray? Not really.

Incidentally, one of my friends brought a can of bear spray because she was worried about wild pigs. It went off in her pack by accident when she sat it down on a lunch break, prompting "why are you hissing at us." If we had been in bear country, it would have smelled mighty appealing to the bears. It also begged the question of what she thought she was going to do if pigs actually ran at us - drop the pack, upend it and dig?

Not all my friends think the way I do, either. That's okay, as long as they don't spray me with it.

I agree with you in this, but you can't convince people not to fear. I have a number of folks - some of them very experienced hikers - in my hiking group who have this pathological fear of bears. I ask if they were bitten or charged by one - nope. I can tell them my "saw a bear on the trail and it just walked away" story repeatedly and they still think a bear is going to jump out of the woods and eat them while we're doing a moonlight hike to Half Dome.

One lady (wonderful gal) was backpacking with us in the evening down the JMT from Little Yosemite Valley - this lady had a lifetime of camping and hiking and taking all her kids out there. She fell a little behind on the trail in the dark and ended up walking alone; I don't know why she didn't yell, probably didn't want to impose on the rest of us to walk slower with her, which we would have. She still insists she's not going back in the dark. Nothing happened to her other than walking alone down the trail, but she will say she doesn't want to be eaten by a bear - she must have had a major case of heebie jeebies going down. Or maybe she just doesn't like the dark and bears are more solid things to pin her fear on... Others worry about them in daytime as well. One lady with her aching back carried that bear spray the whole way in a side pocket of her pack - where it stayed, useless if she needed it because she had to ask other people to get stuff out of the pockets while she was wearing the pack.

So no amount of talk is going to change anyone's mind about bear spray... it's just fear. Some people have it, some of us go out anyway and lose it due to our experiences. But some of the experienced hikers keep it.

Again, experience has nothing to do with your chances of getting mauled by a bear or lion. Any one of us could be walking on the trail that day when the one-in-a-zillion previously-avoidant critter gets a flash of an idea to pounce suddenly. Whether we get the chance to use the bear spray or the stick or the .30-06 is a roll of the dice.

I grew up seeing the cover of Outdoor Life Magazine displaying a giant grizzly standing upright with blood on its fangs and claws swatting a pack of dogs around like they were misquitos. Or just attacking some poor camper, ( in the same grizzly pose of course ). Childhood images can be hard to displace.
I cannot imagine what that poor woman went through walking alone in the dark. I guess some fears have to be met head on.

If you hear the 'clucking' or 'clicking' sound that a Black Bear makes - well - you better damn well be aware of your surroundings. It's a distinct warning sound that you may be getting a little to close for the bears comfort.

I'd like to give more advice on these types of situations, but I'm not qualified. In fact, I've probably said to much already.

I suspect, Marc, that a rank greenhorn is a lot less likely to get in trouble than is the typical, semi-experienced, cocky young male. By this I mean a reasonably fit male 15 to 35 years-old with a few years of outdoor experience or recent military experience under his belt. If you look at the rescue statistics in Grand Canyon NP as an example, you'll see youthful, testosterone-fueled, overconfidence featured as a common theme of the typical rescue, live or dead, from below the rim. To quote Will Rogers (probably not real accurately): "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble; it's what you think you know that ain't so that does it".

Probably the second most likely candidate for rescue are old f@rts like me who are still in denial about getting older.

Take your bear spray, relax, don't worry about what others say, and have a great time.

My best friend in high school hunted bears with dogs. Bear meat can taste pretty good. The reality is rarely what it is on magazines full of advertising for things like guns and other outdoor gear.

I can imagine what my friend went through... I went solo for quite a while. The first time was the hardest; successive outings I was less and less afraid of being out there in the moonless dark by myself, until I realized that the worst thing that was going to happen was mosquito bites on my butt when I did a midnight run. The only animal I've had through camp was a turkey. Still waiting for a bear to touch my canister, which has been in active bear areas the entire time it's been in use.

Feelings are feelings, they don't have to control your choices.

When I hike with a group and some of them carry bear spray, I pitch my setup a ways from them, upwind if I can determine that, and tell them I'll probably be waking them up if I get out of the sack to pee by whistling or humming as I go through camp, so they don't shoot me with their bear spray panicking in their half sleep. Maybe they won't like that but I think they would like it more than running for SAR.

Having an understanding of bear behavior makes a big difference in how one feels about sharing trails with bears. Bears don't act arbitrarily. They don't mind their own business and then leap out of nowhere and attack a human. Most bear attacks are related to hunger (lack of food sources make bears very grumpy, and hunger/malnutrition may make them much more dangerous because they are driven by instinct to eat and fatten up over a very short period of time), youthful curiosity, an protection (cubs, kill).

When salmon are running hot and heavy anglers and bears both hang out on river banks in as close to what you could call harmony as you could find between bears and humans. When salmon are sparse, bears will become very aggressive and become dangerous. Humans start to resemble prey when bears are hungry.

Education is important. Blind fear is bad. Healthy respect and a little understanding make sharing the woods with bears much more enjoyable. I know in the archives there are some good references for books about bear behavior.

MNS

Wow! I would love to see that lint in your belly button. I have seen two sizes of spray - the smaller one is about 6-8 oz. and the larger one about 12oz. They both spray the same, the larger one just offers more shots than the smaller version. They come with a holster - this NEEDS to be used.

I really think everyone need to practice before counting on these. You may be able to get an out-dated one from a store at a reduced price or free. Then go practice using it. You really need to see how it sprays and have it second nature (like doing an ice-axe self arrest).

I do not use bear spray in the Sierra. I would use it if I were to go to Alaska.

As for firearms - now that is something really heavy. And you also better be an expert shot.

My partner is a traditional bow hunter. He says that people actually hunt bear with traditional bows. I wonder if just the act of being the predator instead of the prey makes the bears weary of you? I have wondered if I carried an imitation (like a baloon blow up) gun if aiming it at a bear would make the bear run. I have actually picked up a stick and carried it like a gun once when I though I was in mountain lion country. If there were a lion, he probably just laughed at me!

Fear certainly seems to attract bears, although many bear attacks have occurred so suddenly that the human attacked never even knew they were being tracked by a bear. But I have heard one story of a mauling where the female of the couple stood her ground and tried the talk the bear down ("hey bear, hey bear") and the male of the couple panicked and tried to run away. He got about two steps before the sow brown bear got him across the face with her paw. The bear never went after the female hiker. The sow then took off into the trees to her cubs once she felt the "threat" had been neutralized. The male hiker had extensive facial injuries but survived and today you have to know what happened to see the scars. Anyway, the female hiker felt that it was the fear in her partner that had triggered the attack on him as until he panicked and started to run, the bear had seemed to be bluff charging and the hikers were backing off.

I can't see what I'm typing now so I'll ppost this.

This didn't happen too long ago:

http://www.ktvb.com/news/localnews/stories/ktvbn-jun1209-bear_attack_folo.73be7ef6.html

A man seemed to stumble into a no-win situation with a sow and two cubs and a buried elk carcass nearby. I guess he came around a corner and there she and her two cubs were.

Being by himself, the only thing I think this guy might have done wrong was possibly not make noise while he was walking because, everything I've heard about it made this situation seem like it was pure surprise on the part of both parties. But who knows if talking while talking would have even helped either. One of those "what if" situations it doesn't hurt putting yourself in mentally.

Interesting - bear spray AND a gun and he couldn't get to either.

It makes me wonder if bears have 2 kinds of attacks - where they are just trying to neutralize a threat, and where they are treating the person as prey. Seems that more people survive the attacks where they stumble between a sow and cub, or bear and food cache, but die when attacked after being stalked for some time. I haven't seen any stats, just thinking off the top of my head here.

MNS

I'd have to agree with you on the types of attacks. A large majority of the bear attacks I hear about that resemble the one that I posted the link to tend to leave the person wounded but not dead. This guy was able to walk 3-4 miles it said back to the trailhead. That sow could have put and end to that hiker at any point during the attack but didn't. I've heard a lot of accounts that started just like this hiker's but ended in some nasty scars and a greater respect for bears. The bears seem to more or less want to ensure an opportunity for them to leave safely and leave a message. Look at sows that chase off bores that get too close to them and their cubs. They pursure the bores to either what they feel is a far more desired distance or the bore gets the chance to go in the other direction.

I think of stalking instances with hungry bears and think of that Timothy Treadwell fellow who was a little too comfortable with the bears up there in Katmai. That bear made a point of killing the two victims because apparently food wasn't as avaliable at that point in the year when the bears were looking to put a lot of weight on for winter.

In my own experiences with bears, both brown and black, they tend to be as weary of us as we are of them. Every bear I've ever come within fairly close proximity to(less than 100 yards) headed in the other direction. Granted, all the bears I've ever encountered are pretty wild and aren't "dumpster divers," nor have I ever come into close proximity of a sow with cubs, so I've been lucky thus far in my outdoor escapades.

I've carried one in the Bear Tooths, Wind River, and Sawtooths...have never used it..it's now out of date, but will be replaced. I've scared black bears in the Bear Tooths just like the books say -- make yourself big, etc. They ran off, but were smallish...3-4 year olds.....heard a grizz and cubs (sounded almost like Indonesian wild hogs) later in the trip....packed up and walked three hours more....

I hope I never have to use bear spray....but my wife's peace of mind is important too...

Lord knows I have commented on this subject way more than I should have but I just wanted to thank Pika.
I will take bear spray and I intend to enjoy every step of my time in Yellowstone.
Note to Daisey .. if you read this, I may have stretched the truth about my belly button lint just a tad. I hope it at least gave you a chuckle. As for the advice you have given me, I am paying attention and appreciate your help as well as the help from everyone in here such as Pika.
Hopefully some day I too may have enough experience to express a worthwhile opinion which may help someone.