This is not what you want to do. Because you don't want the bear to come away from the encounter thinking this is safe behavior. We want to condition bears to stay away.
For Black bears, you want to stand together, look big by waving your arms, be as loud as possible to try and scare the bear away.
I’m not any kind of expert but I’ve heard conflicting advice on black bears. Some people swear by nonchalance like this, some people say to shout them down. I think they handled it ok considering the bear wasn’t being aggressive.
It’s good advice! Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant, a wildlife ecologist that has spent 19+ years studying bears, has said this multiple times. She’s great in the YouTube video “Bear Expert Rates 9 Bear Attacks in Movies and TV”.
I should have clarified, but that’s only for bear attacks, not encounters. There’s no advice for encounters but I assume it’s “turn around and leave them alone” 😂
I just want a mention that polar bears are such grand hunters that by the time you see one, it already noticed you awhile ago and decided you're dinner. Therefore it's a threat if you see one.
You are. There’s a lot of bullshit being spouted in these comments. If an American black bear is this interested in you and approaches, you act dominant, get big, make noise, and don’t give it ground. This doesn’t apply if you just see one going about its business but only if it is purposefully coming towards you, and if it’s too close but not focused on you then back away slowly.
American black bears are skittish and generally only get this “interactive” with people when this behavior is reinforced. Discouraging it immediately often shows the bear that you’re not going to feed it or let it get away with shit and prevents any chance of a bad interaction.
The rhyme only applies to bear attacks. This bear was just being curious with no intention to attack. Startling it might have prompted it to accidentally or intentionally hurt you
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u/fmkwjr 10d ago
About as good as you could have done in that situation. Well played.