Thanks, Doug. Stateside the laws are a crazy-quilt patchwork of wildly varying regulations. In my home state of SD you can have virtually anything and carry it almost everywhere. But outside of the Black Hills there are very few dangerous wild animals, and almost no big ones. Plenty of rattlesnakes but they're best dealt with by leaving them alone. Having been around black bears quite a bit (mostly during my fishing trips to Canada and seeing them in SD) I would feel relatively confident with just a 9mm. But obviously if Grizzly Bears are involved that isn't very much gun. I would have little fear of facing a wolf with a 9mm.

It does seem to me that bear spray is quite effective against bears but not very effective against canines. IIRC they have different receptors and many dogs and wild canines aren't deterred by OC (which seems to have been the case in some stories referenced).