why does playing dead work to avoid getting attacked by brown bears? Wouldn’t they want to eat you more if they thought you were dead and thus couldn’t fight back?
In: Biology
I read a book on bear attacks in National Parks.
Three takeaways:
1. It’s common to void yourself when a bear charges
2. There is an out of body experience when being attacked. You’re aware of it, but you don’t really feel it
3. You’re brought back to reality by the sound of a grinding noise, and that’s the bears teeth grinding against your skull.
In the book, they cover almost every recorded bear attack, including the famous Reverance story. There’s plenty of people playing dead and the bear losing interest, or continuing to attack, people fighting back and the bear losing interest and the bear attacking, friend jumping in, a friend playing dead while you fight, it doesn’t matter ultimately.
Bears have a mind of their own. If they want to eat you, they’ll eat you. If they want to maim you, they’ll maim you, it’s simply up to them.
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