If anybody was in Bear country,It most certainly was Timothy("No,No Mr.Bear!)Treadwell,& he certainly didn't Tread to well(pun Intended)So,Unless you are making Salami,I see no reason to keep beating this Dead Horse!(Pun Intended,Again!)

Thanks for the info about recent knowledge about how well bear spray works.

Does anyone know about experiences with using bear spray on polar bears? My ambition is to make a new trip into polar bear country (Spitsbergen) within the next few years or so. Last time I was there, the general advice was to bring a heavy caliber rifle.

I wouldn't be surprised if someone demonstrates that pepper spray works on polar bears, too. Until then the old advice about guns still apply...

Don't know much about Alaskan or North American bears, but polar bears are notoriously unpredictable. Most of the time they will prefer to leave humans alone, but they can also be very inquisitive and turn aggressive at the spur of the moment.

Tom Smith's study on bear spray effectiveness documented 2 cases where bear spray was used against polar bears; both successfully. It didn't sound like the bears were being aggressive at the time the spray was deployed though, but rather it was used to deter curious bears. The study stated:

In both polar bear incidents, subadult bears approached humans in a pickup truck there to observe bears feeding on bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) remains near the village of Kaktovik, Barter Island, Alaska, USA. In both instances (100%), bear spray stopped the bear’s approach and turned the bear away. Neither of these bears returned to the truck following spraying.

I noticed the results of this study hit the news again a couple weeks back when Dr. Stephen Herrero presented his conclusions based on this and the bear spray study to the Fourth International Human-Bear Conflict Workshop.

After seeing this, I did a bit more looking around and found that the study at the centre of this thread, Efficacy of Firearms for Bear Deterrence in Alaska, is now available online here (scroll to the bottom of the article).

For those interested in this topic, this study published in The Journal of Wildlife Management makes for a good read. And more importantly, when we discussed this earlier we did so based only on brief reports of what the study found; now we have the opportunity to read what the experts involved actually published.

One interesting thing the introduction to this study pointed out is that until now there have been no real studies published on bear-human conflicts involving firearms. This appears to be the first study which has presented any data on the efficacy of firearms when dealing with bears.

I would be willing to bet that dead bears are not much of a threat to human beings.

Except if the bear was rabid.
My favorite cautionary tale: rabid bear attacks family
http://times-news.com/archive/x1540401278

The objective should be for the human to stay alive. Anyone with different objectives needs to have their head examined. No offense intended hikermor, but I value human life over bear life every time.

Anyway, it's probably better for the ecosystem if humans stayed out of it in the first place.

But, in a surprise confrontation, is someone's attempt to kill the bear more or less likely to result in their serious injury or death? I'd suggest it's more important to walk away from a potentially deadly situation than it is to try and chalk up a kill.


I completely agree. I guess the good news from these studies is that the most likely survival scenario for people is also the one that allows the bear to walk away unharmed, but more wary of humans.

One of the elements of a healthy ecosystem is live, functioning human beings; there is no value judgement implied as to the value of bears versus people. In a good situation, all parties walk away.

I have a lot less confidence in my ability to use firearms under pressure than I used to.

I stumbled on a couple of moose while fishing in a narrow creek. I was about 5 yards away from one and 10 yard from the other and I'd never seen one up close before. Picture a very large cow on stilts. The rack on one had to be 5 or 6 feet across. And they were not happy.

I retreated slowly and when I got to some logs I thought gave some protection, I went to get my pistol from my vest but I couldn't make my hand grab the zipper pull. I consciously tried 3 or 4 times and never got closer than an inch or two away. The only thing I can compare it to is being very, very drunk and just not having any coordination.

I don't think I would have been able to pull the safety tab from a can of pepper spray either.