Joggers meet up with a bear in northern Canada

[Chuck Wintle]

A couple of joggers in Fort McMurray Alberta meet up with a \black bear while jogging...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlB0FqQ0DlQ

[Jim Rimmer]

That was a scary few minutes.

[Phil Stone]

It seems the guy wearing the camera was observing the first rule of running from bears: you don't have to be faster than the bear, you just have to be faster than at least one other person!

[Pat Barry]

It seems the guy wearing the camera was observing the first rule of running from bears: you don't have to be faster than the bear, you just have to be faster than at least one other person!

LOL - nice guy! - couldn't wait for his buddy.

I thought the idea with a black bear was to stand your ground, make yourself look as big as possible, make a lot of noise and keep your fingers crossed that the bear goes away. I think slowly backing away from the bear was instinctive, but wrong. Backing away was a sign of weakness and encouraged the bear to keep moving forward. On the other hand, with a Grizzly bear you are suposed to lie down and assume the fetal position and not fight back or try to run. Anyone else know something different on the proper approach to take?

[Shawn Pixley]

The vast majority of interactions I have had with bears were non-events. Typically they would be fishing salmon upstream or downstream of us. We'd keep an eye on them and they, us. The fish and other food was so plentiful, they would eat their fill and then go take a nap. This was fairly typical.

The proper way to deal with an Alaskan Brown Bear (grizzly) is to be armed. First don't surprize them. Make lots of noise when you're trampling through the woods or up the stream. A twelve gauge shotgun is recommended. I only needed it once. A bear had been following us as we walked beside a stream through muskeg. No amount of noise or stare down discouraged this bear. We ended up shooting the gravel in front of the bear twice. I am glad he decided to go a different way. We always had two shells of shot first in the magazine in the 12 gauge. The remainder was rifled slug. But that was one event in twelve years.

[Dan Hintz]

LOL - nice guy! - couldn't wait for his buddy.

I thought the idea with a black bear was to stand your ground, make yourself look as big as possible, make a lot of noise and keep your fingers crossed that the bear goes away. I think slowly backing away from the bear was instinctive, but wrong. Backing away was a sign of weakness and encouraged the bear to keep moving forward. On the other hand, with a Grizzly bear you are suposed to lie down and assume the fetal position and not fight back or try to run. Anyone else know something different on the proper approach to take?

If it's a momma protecting her cubs, there's very little you can do that's correct... if she wants to protect, she's coming after you.

[Phil Thien]

LOL - nice guy! - couldn't wait for his buddy.

I thought the idea with a black bear was to stand your ground, make yourself look as big as possible, make a lot of noise and keep your fingers crossed that the bear goes away. I think slowly backing away from the bear was instinctive, but wrong. Backing away was a sign of weakness and encouraged the bear to keep moving forward. On the other hand, with a Grizzly bear you are suposed to lie down and assume the fetal position and not fight back or try to run. Anyone else know something different on the proper approach to take?

Their approach was more or less correct:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-OWZQKNj9g

They should have been carrying pepper spray, though.

[Ole Anderson]

Another reason to not jog...

[Harold Burrell]

The proper way to deal with an Alaskan Brown Bear (grizzly) is to be armed.

Some would say that, in the woods, it is always a good idea to bear arms. However, it is never a good idea to arm bears.

[Jim Rimmer]

You should wear bells to alert the bear of your presence and carry pepper spray. Examining the bear scat can tell you what kind of bears are near by. Black bear scat has berry and fruit seeds in it. Grizzly scat smells like peppers and may contain bells.

[Garth Sheane]

The reader forums in the papers up here had a lot of comments by people who I hope never encounter a bear. Many thought it was just a young, curious bear. They have no idea how single minded bears can be when they want something. Many years ago in Alberta, my buddy and I had bagged a buck and a bear about the same size as in the video came into the campsite where we had hung the deer to dress it out. We yelled, we pitched rocks, and it didn't care. I didn't want to shoot it since it was only doing what a bear does. Finally, I shot into the gravel beside it, hoping the noise and gravel spray would scare it off, which it did ... for a while. We had supper and walked down to the lake to wash up (about 75 yards away). There was a large going in our fire pit, and I when looked back at the camp, I could see the bear trying to pull the deer down. I had taken my rifle with me and we ran back to the campsite, yelling all the way. The deer was hanging about 7 / yards from the fire pit. The bear had enough of us, I guess, and it stood up and began walking on its hind legs straight toward us. I thought the fire might keep it back, but it walked right past the fire all the while making mewling sounds and swatting its paws at us. I told my buddy "that S0B is going to jump us ... If something goes wrong, get on top of the Blazer". The bear was so close I didn't need to do anything but point the rifle at its mid chest area and fire. It went over backwards and back on its feet and took off. We put the deer in the Blazer and slept inside it. I hate wounding anything, but I wasn't going to look for a wounded bear in the dark. Next morning I couldn't find a trace of blood anywhere to track, even crawling back and forth over the gravel road where I should have been able to spot blood. Never did find it.

I think these guys were lucky, but they sure should have carried bear spray. A few days before, a bear had killed somebody in the same area.

[Phil Stone]

When we were motorcycle touring in the northern Rockies (Jasper/Banff/Glacier), a ranger in Glacier Nat. Park told us the strategy for dealing with an aggressive Grizzly: climb the nearest tree, then throw your wallet as far from the tree as you can.

He said, "That way, when the Grizzly climbs the tree and eats you, they'll know who it was."

[Sam Murdoch]

This is an entertaining as well as informative thread- wallets, bells, armed bears, reason not to jog ...

[Bruce Volden]

Bells??? Around here they mean dinner time but then again we haven't any 'bars.

Bruce