Like what we have in a famous saying on how to survive a bear encounter based on its color, “fight back if it’s black, lie down if it’s brown, and run if it’s white.”
In: Biology
That advice is pretty general, and only really applies to North America. The thinking is that black bears are smaller and more skittish, and will usually run away if you present yourself as a dangerous predator. So stand up tall, yell, wave your arms to make yourself look bigger. In almost all situations you’ll be okay…unless you’ve accidentally cornered a mother bear with her cubs. If you see a cub anywhere, get the hell away.
Grizzly bears and brown bears are far larger and more dangerous. But they don’t naturally see humans as prey. So if you see one anywhere nearby, be still, be quiet, and don’t present yourself as any kind of threat. While a grizzly will also probably leave you alone, if it senses a challenge or danger, it’s more likely to attack you.
Polar bears are incredibly aggressive alpha predators. There’s nothing in their environment that can threaten them, and due to sparse prey they tend to attack almost anything that looks like they could eat it. They’re dangerous in any situation. Run away.
The problem is that black bears can be colored brown and grizzly/brown bears can be colored black. Coloration is generally reliable…but learning the outlines of the different species (like the much larger shoulders of grizzly bears and the rounded snouts of black bears) is a better way to identify them. Black bears are also almost never larger than a person at least in terms of height (they’re still way heavier and stronger), so if you see a bear with shoulders that come up to your belly or chest, it’s a brown or grizzly.
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