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
Short answer: it doesn’t.
Long answer: when you get in contact with a wild grizzly bear in the lower 48, your only defence is bear spray. Exceptions can be made for brown bears in national parks who have been conditioned to be around humans.
How to prevent attacks: don’t bring food with you in the wilderness, and if you do, make sure it’s packed away very far from your tent. Always keep your dog on a leash. Always carry bear spray. Scream and be loud, but your two hundred pound body is not likely to scare a bear that’s already chosen you as food.
While brown bear attacks are rare (~1/ year in the lower 48), they can happen when bears are hungry, if they are old, and just because they’re giant multi hundred pound carnivores.
This is different than American black bears, which likely will run away when they see you.
To most animals, humans are strange, scary, and taste bad. Unless the bear is pretty hungry, it probably doesn’t want to eat a human.
Most bear attacks are defensive – instigated by the bear’s sense that the human is a threat to it or its children. Playing dead, even if the bear knows you’re still alive, reduces the bear’s threat perception.
If the human is not a threat and the bear is not hungry enough to eat something gross and weird, the bear no longer has a reason to expend energy.
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.
I once listened to a bear encounter expert explain the part of the explanation involves the evolutionary history of the species. Brown or grizzly bears originally evolved to live on the barren lands and open plains where there was little available cover. Their response to a threat is to beat it up and then run away (taking cubs if they have them in tow.). Black bears evolved in forested environments with ample cover, so they tend just to run away or send their cubs up a tree. No need to risk a direct confrontation with the threat. Of course this changes if the bear (typically a black bear) is in predatory mode, in which case the appropriate response is to present as formidable a target as possible, in hopes the animal will give up and look for an easier meal. Polar bears evolved in extreme arctic environments where food in the form of vegetable matter, insects and small rodents is not available. So they have to eat anything they come across. They have the size and strength to predate on seals, walrus and even small whales—humans are easy pickings.
Myths about pistols vs bears far outnumber actual reports. https://www.ammoland.com/2021/06/handgun-or-pistol-against-bear-attacks-104-cases-97-effective/#axzz8DLR2jzMs
Years ago, a friend of mine who was living temporarily in Alaska met up with some people via a local FB group to do some overnight hiking. They all met up the day-of to check each others supplies and packs. My friend caught a glimpse of a pretty standard police issue handgun in one dudes stuff, and asked him if it was for bears if they came across one. The guy just smiled, tapped his own temple and said “it ain’t for the bear if we do”.
If you’re close enough to a brown bear where you’re trying to figure out if you should run, fight, or play dead, you’re already done. Those things will fuck you right the fuck up
Latest Answers