’Tis the Season to “Be Bear Aware”
OUTLIERS: I mentioned in the previous post that bear attacks are relatively rare ... but they do happen. Since it is springtime and bears are out this info is worth a deeper dive, just to keep us on our toes.
When I worked as public information officer for Alaska’s Division of Wildlife Conservation, I routinely addressed reporters and public in the wake of situations involving bear attacks of all types. Most aggressive acts on humans involved brown (grizzly) bears responding to surprise, close-range encounters with hapless hikers, hunters, or anglers. The attacks were sometimes carried out by individual bears or, more often, sows with cubs. In such instances, bears perceive a human's sudden appearance as a threat. In response, they sometimes attack to neutralize the threat. In my experience, most - but not all - victims survived such attacks, sustaining injuries ranging from minor scratches to life-threatening.
To avoid surprise encounters, people are advised to travel through bear country in pairs or groups while creating plenty of noise to make your presence known. Also, experts suggest some form of protection be carried, such as bear spray or an appropriately powerful firearm. Whichever you carry, you should be practiced and proficient with it; if you're not familiar and proficient with firearms, spray would probably be a better choice.
Bears defending food sources - again, this applies to brown bears, particularly - can be especially dangerous. Avoid areas where winter kills, road kills, hunter kills, and kills made by bears have been recently reported. Even dumped or poorly secured trash can draw hungry, protective bears.
During my time as PIO with the State of Alaska, black bear attacks on humans were less common, yet sometimes included the grim, if extremely rare, predatory attack. Unusual as predatory bear attacks are (I can't stress this enough), there's no predicting when one might occur. I once faced news cameras and print reporters two days in a row after a deadly predatory attack occurred near Anchorage one day only to be followed the next by a second predatory mauling in the Interior hundreds of miles north. Both fatal attacks involved black bears.
Moral of the story: It's time now to be "Bear Aware" and prepared for encounters whenever you enter bear country - which is nearly everywhere in Alaska. To learn more, I highly recommend visiting the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's webpage "The Essentials for Traveling in Bear Country" at https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/?adfg=livingwithbears.bearcountry
Be aware. Be safe.
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