Re: [Paddlewise] Bears

I'll echo much of what has been said about Stephen Herrero's book "Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance"...
a good primer for many reasons. Herrero's repeatedly
dispels the one-rule-fits-all scenario for defining human-bear interactions. Black  Bears & Grizzlies
are both capable of predatory behavior and the guiding influences appear to be habituation with
human contact and association of human presence with source for food.  Localized drought
or starvation conditions, as well as seasonal shifts in feeding behaviors also contribute to the mix.
Most severe attacks, maulings, killings, in Glacier National Park and Yellowstone, have occurred
in the early to late autumn.

We cannot specifically predict ursine behavior, nor can we suggest with any certainty that
our response to a bear encounter will or won't influence a bear's response to our presence.
We can keep clean camps, handle garbage/scraps/rinsewater properly, bag/store/protect
food sources.  In the Sierras where I've backpacked, they are persistent, clever, and
often aggressive camp raiders.  In the Tonquin Valley north of Jasper, AB,  I was
always encountering scat, foot prints, feeding and habitat signs, but only saw one
sow and two cubs from across a ravine at a distance of several thousand yards.
I've been bluff charged in Glacier National Park by an adolescent male grizzly,
and been followed and repeatedly bluff charged by a black bear in the Porcupine
Mountains of Michigan's UP.  In each situation, local 411 guided my responses
and proved invaluable.

It bothers me to see large displays of bear spray canisters at REI and other
stores, especially those in areas that are not geographically close to bear habitat, because
the point-of-sale presence suggests these pepper foggers as an adequate means of defense
(a.k.a. 'solution').  If I had been carrying either in my prior encounters, fear and or
adrenaline alone might have convinced me that their use was necessary.  I'm glad
I was empty handed, frankly.

In many ways this mirrors that debate over use of GPS to the exclusion of basic compass knowledge.
And, perhaps more troubling, spills over into the area of carrying firearms for 'protection'.
I realize that Alaska and many other areas call for different rules of engagement and I'm not trying
to raise the gun debate here, per se.

Herrero's book is sobering on many counts.  And nearly every backcountry traveler I know who
has read this book comes away with a much stronger commitment to long-term prevention
and human behavior managment....and not, perhaps surprisingly so, in the market for a
bigger pepper fogger or Armalite semi-automatic.

-Will
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