I just saw a massive fight between two grizzly bears. Why is it suggested that the best defence for humans is to ‘play dead’?
In: Earth Science
As others have said, you don’t win in a fight against a grizzly. That would be as absurd as expecting a smart car to come out unscathed from a collision with a mack truck.
The best defense, though, isn’t to play dead, per se, it’s to drop to a fetal position and cover the back of your neck with your hands. You do this, partly because grizzlies are *less* likely to attack if they don’t think you’re any sort of threat, but also because you can live without your hands or arms, but can’t live without your vital organs or the arteries going up your neck into your brain. The fetal position generally protects your soft underbelly with your less-soft arms and legs, and makes it more likely that you’ll survive the encounter if the bear mauls you.
Keeping in mind, of course, that this only applies to grizzly bears: if it’s a black bear, the opposite advice is true: hit them as hard as you can in vulnerable areas if they decide to attack, preferably with rocks or whatever you can find that can inflict more damage than your hands.
And if it’s a polar bear rather than a black or grizzly bear, well…. just hope it isn’t a polar bear.
Hence the bear chart: “If it’s brown, lie down. If it’s black, fight back. If it’s white, good night.”
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