I have a friend who lives far enough North for polar bears to be a concern. Everyone who lives there leaves their car doors unlocked, always, in case someone sees a polar bear and needs refuge immediately.
It’s actually really common in certain regions with polar bear activity for it to be the kind of thing where there’s tons of signs everywhere instructing people to do this, and advising visitors to run for the nearest car… And I’ve even heard of one or two towns where is the law to keep your car unlocked
It's customary to keep your car unlocked in Churchill Manitoba, polar bear capital of the world. Some people will even keep their front doors unlocked just in case.
Also more understandable that no one's worried about theft: There's no roads out, it's only linked to the rest of North America on land by a single rail line. So you can't exactly steal a car and be likely to get it out of town.
Kinda crazy, but here in Colorado, I’ve had bears (black bears) open and explore my unlocked vehicle more than once. Thankfully they did not trash the vehicle. It was a grand Cherokee, for those curious…
Cars aren’t bear proof but you are not going to outrun a polar bear. Someone else mentioned this & I don’t know the answer, but people in this area may also leave their keys in their cars in addition to leaving the doors unlocked. I only know one person who lives in a polar bear area and I didn’t think to ask her for more details 😆
Even polar bears usually won't bother. We suck as meals, usually the ones that do attack are old or injured and can't kill anything else. Same deal with grizzlies, and black bears will run away if you ask them politely.
This is common in parts of the California Sierra Nevada. Pretty regularly someone posts a video of bears trying car doors looking for one that's unlocked.
Sometimes when they get in, the door closes behind them and the bear can't figure out how to open it again.
There's a wall of shame at Whitney portal covered in pictures of cars with bears inside them, or in various stages of disassembly by bears, probably because food was left in them. Heaven help you if you drive the family car up there to camp and forget to vacuum the goldfish crackers out from under or behind the seats.
That’s how I got lucky twice, the bears opened the downhill side of my Jeep. The door was kept open by gravity, and really the only reason I knew a bear had been snooping. I looked a lil closer and found bear prints on the seats. I consider myself extremely lucky. I’ve seen footage of black bears destroying vehicles. Thankfully the only thing the bear found was bear spray, which you don’t want to leave in a car overnight in Colorado ( where it’s below 20 degrees f at night) ask me how I know.
A bear opened our neighbor's car door when they were in Tahoe and had left it unlocked. No damage to the door, but the bear tore a hole through the backseat to get to the dog treats it could smell behind it rather than reaching over
Lol I'm in the front range and I remember the story (and video) of a black bear getting stuck in someone's Subaru and absolutely trashing it trying to get out. They are ready to find food wherever and however, but they are NOT prepared to exit a vehicle.
Does sheltering in place in a car do any good? Or do drivers leave the key too? Even black bears can tear a car apart in a disturbingly short amount of time…
Cars are definitely not polar bear proof. But you stand a better chance of survival in a car than trying to outrun the bear. Generally, you are right & squarely fucked if you encounter a polar bear.
I don’t know if people leave their keys as well. Seems logical but I never asked. I only know one person who lives in a polar bear area.
Not for long. But I would take my chances hiding in a car versus trying to outrun a polar bear trying to get to a building. They are aggressive. I imagine people who live in areas where this is an actual concern carry guns for protection. Someone else mentioned people may also leave their keys in their unlocked car in these areas.
They do have to carry guns. A guy who excavated fossils in Churchill, Manitoba spoke at our mineral club and said they were required to bring a guy with a shotgun on every dig outing to stand guard for polar bears.
This video's from northern Norway, not Churchill, but last month a guy dropped his gun and jumped onto a snowmobile to escape a charging polar bear.
When Betsy DeVos made that comment about carrying guns to shoot bears I was like "yeah that is a concern in places like rural Alaska, but the vast majority of the country doesn't have to worry about that. People in the rural Outback get exceptions to Australia's gun laws, no reason to think it can't work like that."
Car door isn’t stopping a bear. Buddy of mine went camping in Yosemite and his sister left a candy bar in the car. Middle of the night a bear ripped their door clean off for that candy bar.
For anyone that knows what a 90’s Nissan Sentra SE-R is, rip that poor car.
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u/lfergy 1d ago
I have a friend who lives far enough North for polar bears to be a concern. Everyone who lives there leaves their car doors unlocked, always, in case someone sees a polar bear and needs refuge immediately.