Bears: What to do with the clothes you cook in

[David Ure]

I just got back from a week trip on the west side of Vancouver Island, known for the incredible wildlife. We did not see signs of any bears but many, many wolf tracks (fresh too). What gave me pause, however, were the abundant Mountain Lion tracks. Unlike the average bear, these are predatory from what I understand. And we were hiking at night!

On longer trips I sweat and smell and don't use any soap or underarm deoderant (sorry ladies). This helps ward off unwanted visiters – furry or not.

[Patrick Starich]

Do bears avoid groups of humans like humans avoid groups of bees? We are much larger than bees, and unless extremely sensitive to their stings, we know they are incapable of doing us much harm. Still we avoid them.
Likewise, to a bear humans are not intimidating because of their size. The uncertain outcome of engaging a group of humans seems a significant deterence for most bears. While humans find it easy to closely inspect a single honey bee on a flower, we anticipate the dire consequences of closely inspecting a bee hive and are detered.

Bears are wise to be suspicious of groups of humans just as humans are smart to avoid groups of bees. But, desperate for a meal, humans and bears can confront fear and engage the group (bees or people) to get food. Underweight bears desperately foraging late season might find it easy to work up the courage to pick off a couple of humans (Treadwell's demise), but I've never heard of a larger group being attacked in this situation.

[Johnathan White]

From my experience, and it is very little, I have read and seen bear up close and personal to determine it is simply a measure of risk vs. gain. Rather simply minded, a bear has but one goal, to eat enough to live. In some environments, this is harder than others; hence the gain required increases the risk a bear will take.

I remember reading about Ryan’s Alaska trek, when they surprised a griz. (Correct me if I am wrong Ryan!)

In this corner, we have three full-grown male adults. In the opposite corner, there is a lone male griz. From what I read, it took a while for the bear to move away, telling me he was really contemplating taking the risk against three unknown potential foes. It turned out that the bear was lying over a kill and in that remote wilderness, a kill may be quite a hard gain.

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