Understand the Dangers of a Bear Threat

Video Transcript

"Hi! I'm Jordan Pederson with Expert Village. We'd like to talk a little bit about if you actually do meet a bear or come with a face to face confrontation with either a grizzly bear or black bear. The first thing your want to do is to let the bear calm down and make the decision. You want to stand and talk quietly to the bear. It doesn't matter much what you say. The bear doesn't understand you. Just talk with the bear. You want to raise your arm slowly. You want to talk to the bear and just in monotone voice let him know what you are. That you're a person, that you mean him no harm. If the bear freezes up, maybe you want to try a few back steps while you're talking to the bear and let him know that you mean him no harm backing up talking. Then stop. Maybe the bear will sense that you mean him no harm and leave the area. If the bear continues to be aggressive, especially with the black bear is you want to make noise. You want to bang 2 pots together. You want to make noise. You may want to throw some rock that way. You want to become very aggressive with the black bear at first. He starts toward you, then you really want to become aggressive with the black bear. If you lay down the black bear will become more aggressive. With the grizzly what you want to do is you want to talk. You want to him/her every chance you can. Many times there's a bluff charge. They'll stop 2 or 3 feet in front of you. This is if you don't have the pepper spray. If the bear makes contact with you in any way you want to go down on the ground. If you have a pack you want to cover the back of you neck. You want to cover your stomach. Many times the bear will flip you over. As you hit your back, give yourself an extra roll always ending up with you back up. You don't want to expose the organs of your body. Usually the bear will move you around a little bit. When he or she decides that you are no longer a threat they will usually leave. What has usually happen in many cases is that people will get up too quick. The bear will go off a short ways and watch you. People will get up and look around. The bear will come back. Most times people that have gone through this say the second encounter is much more severe than the first one, so lay there for a few minutes and try to decide if the bear has left the area. Once the bear usually decides that you're no longer a threat, they will leave and go off."