New Study Says Bear Spray Outperforms Guns
By Tom Chandler on Mar 29, 2008 in News
From the formerly bikini-fishing-chick posting deviants at the Getoutdoors Blog (GoBlog) comes a Salt Lake Tribune story that suggests leaving the big, heavy firearm at home might be your best bet when it comes to bear protection:
If you’re roaming bear country, your best protection against an unpleasant encounter is a can of bear spray, not a gun, according to Brigham Young University wildlife biologist Tom Smith.
Smith’s team, which included Stephen Herrero, a world authority on bear attacks, has studied 600 bear encounters in Alaska over two decades. In 72 incidents in which bear spray was used properly, the bear stopped charging more than 90 percent of the time, according to a study Smith published in the April edition of the Journal of Wildlife Management. People using guns, by contrast, stood a one-in-three chance of failing to deter the bear, according to an earlier study.
Bear attacks aren’t exactly a problem in the Mt Shasta area, and while I’ve seen bears a half-dozen times up here, they’ve always been headed in the opposite direction. And frankly, I’d hope the smell of human waste drives bears away, because I’d likely soil myself if a bear ever did charge.
Still, it’s food for thought for the upcoming Montana road trip, though it’s possible that just being fast enough to outrun your fishing buddy is defense enough.
See you in the pepper aisle, Tom Chandler.
Tags: bearattacks, fly fishing, grizzly bear, brown bear, goblog
Heddon17 | Mar 29, 2008 | Reply
Agree that bears aren’t a real big problem around here.
I wonder if the lady mentioned in the article below wants the lion shot and killed?
http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/articles/2008/03/28/news/100news3.txt
Tom Chandler | Mar 29, 2008 | Reply
Fabricated (but accurate) quote:
“Yes, we want to live in the country, but do we really have to let the wildlife live here too?”
ijsouth | Mar 29, 2008 | Reply
Sounds just like the people who freak when they see a gator in their pool, or in the drainage ditch behind their house…as long as you don’t feed them, or otherwise get them acclimated to man, they don’t bother anyone. Every one that I’ve seen in the wild in Louisiana has bolted when it saw me (I’ve had different experiences in Florida, where I suspect they had been fed). I imagine bears and mountain lions are similar. If people insist on living on mountains, or in woods, or along a bayou, sightings like this are part of the game. I’m sick of people wanting everything sanitized and risk-free. Heck, most of the stuff we did as kids are banned today in the name of “safety”.
BTW Tom…just got back from the Smokies - apparently one of the elk from the Cataloochee valley had a bit of wanderlust, and hiked over the mountains to the Cosby area. We didn’t see it - just some nice brookies.
Tom Chandler | Mar 30, 2008 | Reply
ij: Ian said the hatches in the Smokies were kicking into gear. Sounds like a fun time to be there.
As for animals, it seems that people largely occupy the extremes; they either feed them because they’re cute or fear them because they’re not predictable.
That ignores the middle range where you respect the things, don’t treat them like pets, and leverage the sensible, non-lethal methods to keep them from becoming a problem.
Heddon17 | Mar 30, 2008 | Reply
Folks living in the country would really reduce their problems with animals if they stopped feeding the cute ones such as squirrels. While the squirrels are cute and fun to watch, feeding them also draws in their predators……
Tom Chandler | Mar 30, 2008 | Reply
Frankly, feeding fly fishermen and guides represents a bigger risk than feeding wild animals (at least in terms of the food budget); they just keep showing up around mealtime…
ijsouth | Mar 30, 2008 | Reply
Tom:
We ran into some cooler than expected weather…in fact, we had snow the day after Easter. We still caught fish, all on dries, and our last day there it really warmed up; the hatches of blue quills and quill gordons took off, and so did the fishing. We’re going to have to go back next month for a quick weekend - that’s about all the time I can spare away from work.
As for gators and feeding fly fishermen…I must admit to liking a little barbequed gator tail - the “other other” white meat.
Reed | Mar 31, 2008 | Reply
The best bear deterrent is abject fear.
This may sound strange, but if all the body’s orifices let go at the same time, the combination of sounds and odors will convulse even a hardened bruin into a fit of gagging. While this may appear as cruel treatment of a helpless animal, the effect is far worse on your fellow travelers, especially on the long ride home. It does however, offer an unbroken trail downwind for the rest of the trek.
Reed
Reed | Mar 31, 2008 | Reply
Tom,
More seriously, if the study mentioned is that with which I am familiar it is seriously biased in favor of live bears over injured/dead humans.
Carry both, IMO. That way you have a seasoning on hand for the bear steaks (ugh, terrible stuff).
Smith admits that pepper spray actually attracts bears for up to five days after it is sprayed. And most of the “incidents” involving bears in which pepper spray were “successful” were not charges, but campers using spray to chase bruin away from their campsite (the spray then attracted other bears to the campsite).
Some thoughts about pepper spray:
Most of the true bear charges, not bluffs or standing erect, come as a result of surprising the bear. Surprising a bear most commonly occurs when the bear is neither able to hear, see, or more importantly, smell your approach. This set of circumstances would most commonly coincide with one of at least three factors
1. Approaching the bear from downwind, with a strong wind blowing from the bear toward you, muffling noise and negating your scent. This is also one of the situations when bear spray would be least effective on the bear, but most likely to incapacitate you.
2. Approaching the bear through thick underbrush. Again, bear spray is much less effective in thick underbrush.
3. Approaching the bear in a violent rainstorm. Again, bear spray is much less effective in rain.
I would wager that most of the instances in which bear spray was noted in studies as being effective were also times at which the bear did not indicate aggression but the hiker, in fear (fully understandable) panicked and sprayed. For example,
Quote from Smith’s study:
“Regarding brown/grizzly bear incidents associated with curiosity of(sic) searching for human foods and garbage, in 100% (20/20) of the cases the spray had the effect of stopping the behavior that the bear was displaying immediately prior to being sprayed. The bear left the area in 90% of the cases.”
So 20 of the cases where bear spray was used was simply to drive bears away from food, not in self defense. Unfortunately, while those hikers were able to save their food, they littered the ground with a cone of bear attractant up to 40 feet long. Hikers using the site for as much as the next five days would not know that someone had spread bear bait around, enticing bears from a distance. (See the study for the attractive power of bear spray residue.) A single gunshot directed upward would probably have scared the bear away as well, without placing bait.
Just some thoughts,
Reed
Tom Chandler | Mar 31, 2008 | Reply
Reed: The idea that someone would carry several pounds of big handgun and ammo on a backcountry trip when a single can of bear spray was likely more effective seems a little masochistic. After all, pounds = pain, and I’m notorious for not suffering when I don’t have to.
Handgun proponents tend to ignore the fact it takes several rounds from a BIG handgun to stop or kill a charging bear, and that other studies — notably one involving policemen — suggest that accuracy of stressed shooters even at close ranges is startlingly abysmal.
Obviously, not surprising bears is one key to avoiding them, but that applies no matter what you’re carrying.
Smith recognizes the statistical difficulties when compiling studies anecdotally, and I think the thrust of the report was pretty clear, and yes, I do believe one of the “benefits” of bear spray is the non-lethal aspect; it’s effective, and bears don’t get killed or wounded when they don’t need to be.
For example, in your comment:
That’s precisely the situation where pepper spray excels; it’s not lethal to bears, and frankly, I think the attractant qualities of the red pepper spray are a pretty minor side-effect given that the bear has received some pretty unpleasant negative reinforcement surrounding humanity.
Did you purchase the article from the Web site? I found it interesting reading (though the plot lacked sex).
Too often this debate has bogged down in a guns rights quagmire; I’m pretty happy to see someone trying to address the issue without dragging all the unrelated “emotional” baggage into the picture.
Since we don’t have grizzlies, I don’t bother with either method (the study was based in Alaska).
Reed | Mar 31, 2008 | Reply
Tom,
I am not a gun advocate (rather the other way, I suppose) but I am familiar with the study’s slant and wanted to provide a logical balance. I hope that I was able to.
Now, in practical terms, if a bear ever charges me, I’m sticking with my first defense - abject terror.
Best regards,
Reed
Tom Chandler | Mar 31, 2008 | Reply
Actually Reed, when I said
I meant both you and Smith. Guns are such a loaded issue that it’s rare to discuss their “worth” without it sinking into another battle entirely.
James Mann | Apr 1, 2008 | Reply
Tom I would agree. I would be leaving a pretty slick trail behind me.
I like to take friends fly fishing with me, mostly slower friends.
A couple of my fly fishing buddies and I were fly fishing the Caines, about an hour from my house.
I was down river a little from the others trying a pool with a little less fishing action. When I looked up the river I could see my buddies flailing their arms and pointing at me.
I turned around to see a black bear sitting there ever so quiet watching me fish. I am sure I freaked but tried not to panic.
I kept fishing but started moving back up river. When I looked behind me again he was slowly walking back into the bush.
I have never heard of a bear attack here though.
The sad part of the whole thing was not one of them thought to take a picture.
I have never seen a bear that close to me, not even at the zoo.
Aside from the scare I got they are a beautiful animal.