33
The short answer is "bear spray"; a firearm is really not the most effective option. That said...
I will assume you are looking for grizzly protection, since you didn't specify the bear and black bears are relatively shy. Again, using spray is a far more effective way of improving your odds; a review of its use in Alaska found a 98% success rate, with no ...
33
The question asks for an instance where a bear climbing a tree attacks a human. I found a news article of a hunter being attacked by a black bear in a tree.
I don't think this is a completely satisfying answer since the question implies the question: Why would a bear expend the effort to climb up a tree to attack a human? I am not a bear expert but I read ...
28
I've been up close with grizzly and black bears before, I've had them come sniffing through my camp and I've done nothing but lay quiet in my sleeping bag and wait for them to wander off, which they usually do. Most of the time I don't even know they were there, I just find their tracks the next morning.
Believe it or not bears spook really easily. I've ...
24
Being in a hammock shouldn't change anything. A tent is not any safer, and may be more dangerous, since you don't have visibility of the area around you. Buy or borrow a copy of Trail Life, there's a good discussion of the issues with using a tent. A tarp is my preference over a hammock or a tent, because they make for a dryer and more comfortable night's ...
23
Bears don’t really hibernate, although they lower their activity during winter. Here’s one sample study of Black Bear winter behaviour in Sierra Nevada, California:
Thirty-nine (62 %) bears were winter-dormant for at least 2 weeks; the
remaining 24 (38 %) remained active all winter.
Here in Czech Republic we don’t have many bears, most of them cross ...
21
Use your ears. OK, Let me explain that.
But first things first. The direction of the wind is what we call “downwind”. If I throw a handful of white flour into the wind, the direction that flour travels is “downwind”.
The breeze picks up the scent of nearly everything it touches and carries that scent along wherever it goes. Like the white flour, but on a ...
20
With the exceptions of grizzly bears and polar bears, bears are nuisance animals that are after your food. They have no interest in you except as a source of food or as an obstacle to obtaining your food. In specific, extremely popular camping areas (e.g., Yosemite Valley), bears become habituated to people and are much more common, so they are more of a ...
18
It does. Rule of a bear cache is to put EVERYTHING that smells, in your bear cache and hang it. This applies to toothpaste, deodorant, food, lotions, perfumes, yes.
More info: What precautions should I take to protect myself and my camp from bears?
18
Why yes they can climb trees, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
A common misconception is that grizzly bears, unlike black bears, cannot climb trees. While its long claws make climbing more difficult for a grizzly than for a black bear, a grizzly can get to you in a tree – it will more
likely, however, be able to reach you before you reach ...
17
By "black bear", I'll assume you mean Ursus americanus, the North American black bear.
These bears are opportunists and aren't looking for a fight. In all the encounters I have had with them in the wild that I know of, they have run away as soon as they noticed me. I probably had many more encounters where the bear noticed me and took off before I noticed ...
17
I know that if you cross the Bering Strait to Northern Asia (Siberia, etc.) you'll find that bears hibernate in huge nests in the tops of trees. So climbing trees is not a problem for bears. They must do it in that region because there are tigers about. The real question has to do with the nature of the bear in question. I've turned about in the woods to ...
16
I almost always sleep with my backpack--in fact, I use it as part of my sleep system as I use a shorter sleeping pad, so the backpack goes under my feet. Keeping the pack in your tent gives maximum protection from the worst backcountry pests--mice and their kin.
In the past I've left my pack outside covered in a large, thick trash bag. I think once I ended ...
15
This answer may depend on the type of bear, but somehow I doubt it.
If you ever visit Yosemite National Park, go to the Happy Isles
Visitor Center. They have an old Jeep door on display. The Jeep had
once belonged by a camper who left a tube of chap stick in their car
as they slept.
A black bear smelled the chap stick inside the closed Jeep and ...
15
Bear canisters should not be suspended.
Doing so would make it possible for a bear to steal the canister and take it away. The shape of the canisters make it very challenging for a bear to hold or carry, and normally they will eventually give up and ditch the canister somewhere still close enough that you could find and retrieve it. If you have it hung, and ...
15
It seems like you simply need to reverse the procedure you give. Since you initially had to pull the rope up far enough to tie the stick in to it, you can still pull it back up to the same point in order to untie the stick. Then let the bag lower down again, stick free.
Here is my hastily doodled interpretation of the process. The stick is represented by ...
14
Bear canister rules are often relaxed in the winter. However, this will depend on where you are camping. On the east coast, in the Adirondacks, the rule is:
NYSDEC Regulation Requires The Use of Bear Resistant Canisters by
Overnight Users in The Eastern High Peaks Wilderness Between April 1
And November 30. NYSDEC encourages campers to use bear ...
14
US Fisheries and Wildlife (with black and grizzly bears) suggests that bear spray is statistically more effective.
A 2008 study by Smith et al included two polar bear encounters where the bears were successfully deterred with bear spray.
However, in polar bear country you have other considerations, as the Nunavut visitor information says
Pepper spray ...
14
The suggestion to use wasp spray for defense seems to be common enough that there’s a Snopes page on the topic. This particular urban legend is more often brought up in the context of defense against people, but it seems now to have been extended to bears. I would stick with the bear spray.
In the US, the phrase “It is a violation of Federal law to use ...
13
A fuller history: They were approved for a few years (2004-2007) for use in Yosemite, which is a proving ground for bear-resistant containers. In 2007 I believe there were a couple incidents where bears were able to puncture an Ursack and "suck" food out of it. This led Yosemite to ban them from the park (and ultimately some other national parks followed ...
13
Unless you are dealing with Polar bears the answer is: No.
According to an article on livescience:
Despite campfire fears dating back to at least 1967, black bears and grizzly bears are not attracted to the odors of menstruation, according to a recent Yellowstone National Park report.
Polar bears may be interested in the smell of menstrual blood, ...
13
It is true that people say this. While I know that the plural of anecdote is not data, I will tell some stories. I camp in black bear country (Algonquin and other Ontario parks) and we hang our food or put it in barrels. We never allow any food in the tent, but we do keep soap, toothpaste etc in the tents and we may have someone in the tent who has rubbed ...
13
People getting killed by black bears is exceedingly rare. There are roughly 1 per year in North America, and most of those in Canada and Alaska.
If you are in your tent at night and hear what you think is a black bear outside, the best thing to do is nothing. I have been in this situation a few times, and in all cases the animal (never saw it so can't ...
13
They are faster and can climb better than you, so if they want you they can get you. They rarely see you as real prey so they might not climb a tree to get at you, still... its a risk
In this video you can see a bear climbing a tree where two hunters are. At first it looks like it could be the same bear you saw on the ground, but it's not, it's one bear ...
12
You propose packing food deeply in your backpack. I'd specifically recommend against that. Bears (and other wild animals) have vastly more acute senses of smell than humans, and they won't hesitate to chew through your pack to get at anything buried there. Even if there aren't bears in an area, there are likely to be some kind of varmints (squirrels, ...
12
When I participated in a couple of forest surveys in the Indian subcontinent, I was strongly advised by the forest officials to keep away from anything which would give off a strong scent (deodorants, soaps included). The reason being, many animals are inquisitive and are attracted to strong smells. Bears, I believe are no exceptions. Hence yes, bears do get ...
12
I don't have personal experience with black bears, but only brownies.
If you encounter a bear in 10 meters away from you that means you surprised it or the bear is coming after you. In a night scenario with a whistle and flashlight the surprise cannot be a real life case. That means bear is actually after you and that's very bad.
Black bear may want to ...
12
To answer this I need to split up your question a little bit.
I'd like to know which kind of arrow would slow down or kill a bear
Every arrow with a broad-head (= hunting point) attached. It doesn't matter whether it's made out of wood, aluminium or carbon, if the arrow fits you and your bow.
Which vital spots should I aim at
The lethal zone which is in ...
12
While caging animals is slightly different than keeping animals out, it probably provides the best evidence for specifications. Animal enclosures need to be secure, because animals frequently attempt to escape enclosed spaces. I have never heard of a large animal attempting to break into an enclosed space. Sure, bears try and steal food from cars and sheds ...
11
Some reasons for leeway:
Regulations allow for it. Each park and wilderness area have their own rules and regulations. Some may allow for relaxed practices during known hibernation periods of their local bear population, though some may not. This is simply something that will require personal research into the area in question.
Inclement weather The weather ...
11
Your tent may not provide any physical protection, but your sleeping bag will provide some. Sleeping bags cover the vast majority of your body, and the thick material of a sleeping bag will initially provide minor protection from claws and teeth.
A common strategy for dealing with bear attacks is to employ counter measures. Obviously countermeasures are ...
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