ID Your Bear
Do you know whether to run, play dead, or “get big” when you see a grizzly bear? Turns out that it doesn’t matter if you don’t know how to tell a grizzly apart from a black bear…
How you respond to an aggressive bear depends almost entirely on the species of bear you’re dealing with.
Anytime you’re hunting, hiking, or camping in an unfamiliar area, it’s important that you learn what type of bears you might cross paths with. This will help you know how best to avoid a potentially deadly confrontation.
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The video below gives some good guidelines for dealing with brown bears (AKA grizzlies) and black bears, which are extremely common in N. America.
As a wildlife photographer, I have found cameras chase away bears.(kidding) I use a very strong telephoto lens.
Mostly stay calm and in a non-threatening way, slowly back away.
Always have bear spray with you, in case. If you don’t startle them or corner them, most of the time they will leave you alone.
In the rare case they don’t, bear spray.
Some say to wear small bells to avoid startling the bears. As you say pepper spray often works.
Do you know how to identify grizzly scat? It has small bells and smells like pepper.
I have seen a bear tear the top of a car open when the people inside teased it with food.
In grizzly country what works is a rifle or shotgun with slugs. A 44 magnum might do the job but if you have have a pistol a 50 caliber Desert Eagle is the way to go.
After a bear has been shot hunters have found some of the bullets were caught in the fur and had never even reached the skin. Grizzlies or Kodiak bears (same thing different name) can be concealed in tall grass. What a surprise.