Do you know what to do if you come face-to-face with a bear?

Most bear encounters end with the bear going off on its own way, but in the rare case that a bear charges you, here's everything you need to know.

Transcript

00:00 Whether you are outside enjoying a weekend at a national park or relaxing at home, you need to

00:05 stay bear aware. These days they can be found anywhere from lounging on patios to swimming at

00:11 the beach to the natural habitat. Now the question is, what would you do if you saw a bear? Well,

00:17 Justin Swabedysen is joining us. He's a bear biologist from Grand Teton National Park. He's

00:24 here today to share with us the bear necessities. Thank you for joining us, Justin.

00:30 Well, thank you for having me. Well, first things first, are all bear encounters a threat to your

00:37 safety? No, they're not. In fact, most bear encounters are very benign. Oftentimes the

00:44 bear is going to see you, you're going to see the bear, and the bear is going to run away.

00:48 Bears often practice avoidance with humans, and certainly most bear encounters just end with

00:54 either going their separate ways. That's good to hear. And what attracts a bear to your home,

01:01 car, or campsite, and what can you do to prevent or minimize the visits?

01:06 The vast majority of bears are just looking for natural foods out there in their wild habitat.

01:14 The challenge becomes when humans and visitors to the national parks don't secure their attractants.

01:20 So if you leave out human foods, leave out cooking gear, other attractants that might

01:25 bring a bear into a developed area, that's where the problem really lies. Storing your food and

01:31 other cooking items appropriately and making sure that human foods are not accessible to bears,

01:36 that's the most important thing that we can do to protect bears. Well, if you do see a bear,

01:43 how should you respond? Should you assume they'll attack? You should never assume right off the bat

01:50 that the bear is going to attack. The best thing that you can do is to stop, stand your ground,

01:56 and start slowly backing away. If the bear starts moving towards you, talk to it. Let the bear know

02:03 that you're human and continue to slowly back away. Remain calm, never run from the bear.

02:10 If the bear were to charge you at close range, then stop, stand your ground, deploy bear spray

02:16 if you have it. But again, most bear encounters are going to be relatively benign. I'll say a

02:21 bear does charge you, you don't have bear spray, then what? So in that case, stand in your ground,

02:28 slowly talking to the bear, remaining calm, never running, that's the best course of action.

02:34 If in a very rare situation a bear were to take you to the ground, then play dead. You'll want

02:40 to lie on your stomach, interlace your fingers behind your neck, keep your pack on if you have

02:44 a pack on your back, and remain calm, lying on your stomach until the bear moves away.

02:50 Okay, good words of advice here. I don't know if I saw a bear running at me if I would stay calm,

02:54 but I'll take your words. Well, why are we seeing bears in more populated areas these days? You know,

03:00 we see videos of these bears even at the beach taking swims. Could you tell us more about that,

03:06 why we're seeing bears in more places now? What we're starting to see is as many of these natural

03:12 habitats are fully occupied by bears, bears are naturally dispersing into areas that happen to

03:18 have more human development. All right, great words of advice there. Justin Swabedesan,

03:24 bear biologist from Grand Teton National Park. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me.