Posted on 03/06/2006 4:07:08 PM PST by george76
I think it depends on the bear. Where I live it is black bear and supposedly they will take advantage of leaving if given the opportunity. That is the kind I ran into, it was eating beside the trail. When I made some noise, he looked at me and ran. When I lived in Colorado, I used to mountain bike in the back country. There were always mountain lion warnings and tips on what to do if confronted by one. I have heard of when the tips worked and when they didn't. One time, some dumb people let their 3 year old walk far enough ahead of them that they couldn't see him on the trail while carrying a bag of granola. It didn't end well. The girls in Alaska said that whistling sounds like marmots, which are tasty for bears...
i remember reading that mountain lions (same as cougars?) always attack from behind and go for the neck.
i was thinking of inventing a steel neck protector, but it might get kind of hot and uncomfortable for long hikes.
and for grizzlies, we could invent a cross between a shark cage and an air bag: when the sensor noticed a grizzly attacking the solitary hiker, a collapsible steel grizzly cage would fly out of a back pack and encase the victim-to-be, thus protecting the individual from the bear.
or, maybe i should just stay on long island and watch the nature channel.
Keep workin' the problem Inspector Gadget ;~D
we visited Whistler, in BC--i think it was named after the marmots. plenty of bears around there, too, although i was glad not to encounter any.
the thing to get would be a fishing pole from which to dangle a whistling marmot, far out in front of you. then the bear would attack the marmot, instead of the hiker.
or, maybe i could get some of those whistling footballs. when the bear attacked, i could throw the football over the bear's head, and he would turn around and chase the football. that should work!
what did they suggest to do if confronted by a mountain lion? other than beating at it with a stick (or, if you're a hunter, shooting it), i'm not sure what your're supposed to do.
when we visited vancouver island, several years ago, the ml's were attacking people in the towns.
a canadian told us that the canadian govt had re-located ml's to vancouver island, but there wasn't enough food for them there, so the ml's began to prey on people!
i think we are about half way up the food chain.
i know i'll get it right one of these days!
I'm sure you know this but even black bears are no fun to wrestle with. As my Wyoming cousins agree with me about our CT bears, "They're bear enough for me"
Obviously, you haven't seen what a Grizzly can do to an automobile, cabin door or wall, locked metal food coolers and outdoor freezer cabinets.....
Any protective "cage" strong enough to protect you from a Grizzly, would be too heavy to carry....
Better to avoid all together. Forget trying to outrun.....not possible over any kind of terrain..
Semper Fi
I had some interesting times, too.
I worked for the Forest Service in Alaska, and I was also a logger, so I was out in the bush a lot.
I was charged by a bull moose two separate times, stalked by two Brownies in Denali, was almost run over by a snowy owl eating a rabbit that I flushed out of a snowbank, scaring the crap out of both of us, and I almost had a picnic on pack ice near Hope that broke up suddenly, but decided at the last minute to stay on shore, thus averting a fall into the breaking sea ice!
Yeah, I had fun up there!!
I miss it to this day...
Ed
LOL! When confronted by a mountain lion while mountain biking, you stop, get off your bike and raise it above your head. While doing this, you make low, loud yells. This supposedly makes you look too big for the lion and not afraid of him, so the lion "should" back off. As I said, I have heard of when it worked and when it didn't. I heard about one guy who tried to outrun one on his bike and the lion was on him before he could even get started. They tell you to never turn your back on the lion. Now, if you are hiking, I am pretty sure you try to get a big stick and wave it above your head, yell and pray (unofficially, I think a person would pee their pants as well). My sister lived in the mountains at about 9000 ft elevation. They had a big dog pen and of course it had to have a roof on it, or you just pretty much have a nice appetizer for the lions.
The most exotic animal I ever saw out there was a bobcat. It was in Estes Park on a private outdoor shooting range, no less! It was beautiful.
i definitely want to visit alaska at some point, but i don't think i'd like being charged by the moose or stalked by bears. (i would rather deal with the gangs of NY or the terrorists than deal with a grizzly.)
i was talking to a woman on long island (NY) whose husband took people up to alaska to ski or to kayak, depending on the season. her husband noticed that none of the alaskan kayakers were wearing pfd's, and asked them why not. they said there wasn't any point--hypothermia would kill you before the pfd would do any good!
maybe i'll stay in the car if a mountain lion comes; or maybe i'll stay in the hotel.
i'm amazed the bike-thing ever worked at all. maybe the lion wasn't hungry. from what i have read about them, you don't really know they're around until they attack, and they attack by jumping at your neck from behind. in that situation, i suspect by the time you lifted up the bike and made the noises, you would have been dead for several minutes.
it reminds me of the nuclear bomb drills that we had in NY public schools in the 1950's. the teacher had you get under the desk, and turn away from the window (so you wouldn't be hurt by the broken glass, caused by the bomb exploding.) unfortunately, this was in Queens, NY. so if a missile hit manhattan, you would be dead long before you got under the desk. i guess it made us all feel safer, though. maybe if a mountain lion attacks, we could hide under the desk.
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