How To Stay Safe Around Bears

The first thing to know about wildlife and staying safe around wildlife is that there are few guarantees. There are lots of rules of thumb, some of which are included here, based on generalized observations of bear behavior by species. But animals are individuals, and not every black bear is going to react the same as the next one in a given situation.

For the most part, though, individual animals become “problem animals” when they have become habituated and fed by humans. Even chipmunks can become aggressive toward people when they learn to associate humans with food–imagine how a bear reacts! People doing their part to keep wildlife wild is the NUMBER ONE way to reduce conflicts with bears and keep these animals from becoming habituated to people, consequently causing problems. 

Don’t feed them. In the early days of national park tourism, it was popular for visitors to watch bears feeding on garbage piles, and feeding the bears themselves to get them close for good photos. Today, things have changed and you can get fined or jail time for trying to lure bears closer with food. The phrase “a fed bear is a dead bear” is a reality because fed bears become problem bears, and if a problem bear puts too many human lives at risk, their fate is removal from the area or they’ll end up being killed in a conflict.

Doing your best to keep bears from associating humans with food goes a long way. If black bears are getting into your stuff, put it away. Grills, bird feeders, garbage cans, pet food… keeping this stuff out of reach of bears helps keep them wild and reduces your chance of opening your back door to feed the cat and finding a bear sticking its nose inside instead. 

Don’t let them smell your stuff. Similar to the tips for homeowners keeping food from bears, campers should do the same. Anything that might pique a bear’s interest should be far from your sleeping area. Toiletries like deodorant, food, and trash should be kept in a bear canister at night, or hung from a limb in a bag the bear can’t access. Some established campsites have bear boxes for people to put their things inside where bears can’t access it. 

To hang a bear bag, take a piece of rope, tie a full water bottle to one end and the bear bag to the other. Throw the water bottle over a limb as a counterweight and pull the bag up out of any bears’ reach (this should be far enough away from the main tree that they can’t climb up and reach it). Tie off the other end of the rope and pull it down when you need access!

Always carry a deterrent. Especially in grizzly country, a deterrent is needed no matter what you think your chances of encountering a bear are. Bear spray should be accessible quickly, not tucked down in the bottom of a pack. 

Know how to ID bears. While every bear encounter is unique, in general grizzly bears attack as a defense mechanism and black bear attacks are more predatory. Black bear attacks on people in tents or just hiking are usually predatory, and fighting as hard as you can is the best defense for black bears. Grizzly bear attacks happen most often when they see someone as a threat to their food source (a kill site, etc.) or their offspring. Keep your pack on if you’re wearing it, because it serves as good protection for your neck and back and the bear wants to eliminate the threat it sees in you; it probably won’t be distracted by the tasty snacks you have in your pack if you drop it and run. There are some great online guides for ID’ing black bears and grizzly bears and telling the difference. 

Stay vigilant. When hiking, pay attention to your surroundings and have the ability to listen. I’ve heard black bears huffing or cubs shooting up trees just by paying attention and hiking without music in bear country. Bear attacks are less likely to happen to groups of people, so keep that in mind as well. Spending a lot of time in areas with a lot of bears means eventually you’ll probably have an encounter with one. Every situation is a little bit different, but using tried and true bear safety measures will go a long way to keeping you and the bear safe. 

Foundry Outdoors is your trusted home for buying archery, camping, fishing, hunting, shooting sports, and outdoor gear online.

We offer cheap ammo and bulk ammo deals on the most popular ammo calibers. We have a variety of deals on Rifle Ammo, Handgun Ammo, Shotgun Ammo & Rimfire Ammo, as well as ammo for target practice, plinking, hunting, or shooting competitions. Our website lists special deals on 9mm Ammo, 10mm Ammo, 45-70 Ammo, 6.5 Creedmoor ammo, 300 Blackout Ammo, 10mm Ammo, 5.56 Ammo, Underwood Ammo, Buffalo Bore Ammo and more special deals on bulk ammo.

We offer a 100% Authenticity Guarantee on all products sold on our website. Please email us if you have questions about any of our product listings.