Russian Experience with Bear Spray and Polar Bear

AmmoLand ^ | October 17, 2024 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

A Russian man’s use of bear spray with a polar bear makes an amusing story with serious lessons. The incident was recorded by Anatoly Kochnev in 1993. It was uncovered as part of the Polar Bear-Human Information Management System database (PBHIMS) with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by AmmoLand. Further investigation revealed the live-journal blog where the original account was recorded.

Attempting to use bear spray to discourage a persistent young male polar bear had unpleasant results for the people involved. No one was seriously injured.

The incident happened on Wrangel Island on September 4, 1993. A computer translator from Russian to English appears to have been used to put the account in the PBHIMS. Use of the original Russian account and several translators allowed the resolution of some minor ambiguities. The names are probably incorrect, as they are spelled differently by different translations.

In September 1993, Japanese filmmakers were filming polar bears on Wrangel Island. Wrangel Island is part of Russia with a checkered history in the Chukchi Sea. It has a large concentration of polar bears for several months each year and an even larger concentration of tens of thousands of walruses. The polar bears arrive in significant concentrations to feed on dead walruses, walrus calves, and stranded whales. Polar bear cubs are often the target of dominant boars (male bears).

It is very difficult to obtain permits to visit the island, and visitors are not allowed to have firearms. In 1993, Japanese filmmakers were able to bring in bear spray. Flare guns were allowed. Huts on the island were left over from previous occupants and are heavily fortified against polar bears. The bears tend to be less aggressive because enough food is available to prevent starvation.

[marktwain]

Using the bear spray did not have the desired consequences. Fortunately, the bear involved was not seriously hungry.

[BobL]

“Fortunately, the bear involved was not seriously hungry.”

Or maybe the bear thought that these idiots would be more useful in helping to bring down the human race.

[marktwain]

I suspect your comment is meant to be a joke. I am not quite sure.

Could you explain a little?

[circlecity]

You can use spray. When I am in bear country I always have my 44 mag Ruger Blackhawk on my hip.

[TangoLimaSierra]

I think he meant that the bear decided to leave them in the human gene pool.

[Bob434]

I’ve read that bear spray works on grizzlies, but not so much on black bears (or vice versa, can’t remember now)- with one of them it will drive them off a bit initially, but will “enrage” the bear which will come back with a vengeance.

Not sure if true, but hopefully I never have to find out the hard way.

[Dartoid]

Great story. Those guys were lucky to be able to talk about it.

[Red6]

I have always questioned bear sprays “reliability” as an effective deterrent.

Bears are like flipping a switch, and when they are in their aggressive/fight/pursuit (whatever you want to call that state) mode, I doubt that bear spray will work reliably, but that has just been my suspicion.

As to polar bear, they are a special sort of dangerous. They do not even naturally have an instinctual fear of man (like brown or black bear). You are just another menu item when they are hungry. Extra big, extra fearless, if I were in polar bear country I’d pack my 44.

[marktwain]

Bear spray appears to work better on grizzly bears than on black bears.

On polar bears, it can work. It is much more difficult for bear spray to work in very cold or windy conditions. Polar bears are often encountered in very cold and/or windy conditions.

For bear spray to spray well, it has to be kept above about 20 degrees F. For it to get to the bear beyond a couple of yards the wind has to be non-existant or aligned with the direction you want to spray.

[marktwain]

As to polar bear, they are a special sort of dangerous. They do not even naturally have an instinctual fear of man (like brown or black bear). You are just another menu item when they are hungry. Extra big, extra fearless, if I were in polar bear country I’d pack my 44.

Correct. In addition, they tend to approach prey they do not recognize, cautiously, to see if it is dangerous or not.

They cannot afford to be seriously injured by prey. To become seriously injured is, essentially a death sentence to a polar bear.

This means surprise, full on attacks by a polar bear are not common. It is also why sleeping people are much more at risk. Sleeping people are not seen as much of a threat.

[rlmorel]

From the story: "...After the occupants recovered and managed to air out the cabin, Ivanitch needed to urinate. He left the cabin but forgot his fingers were contaminated with bear spray. The skin of private parts is sensitive, particularly to hot peppers. Many people who have eaten hot peppers with their bare fingers know what happened next. The pain can be considerable. Most of the lotions available in the first aid kit arrived the next morning in an attempt to ease the pain..."

I was with about 15 people at a New Year's Eve Party at a chalet up in Vermont many years ago, and we got the notion to go walk around on the icy roads. As we were walking, a dog, tail wagging, came running up to us, its body language communicating both joy and bon homie...

My buddy whipped out a canister of Mace, and was about ready to spray the friendly dog when I grabbed it out of his hands and admonished him , saying "What are you doing? You can't spray that dog! It was just coming over to say a friendly hello! Are you crazy?" (He didn't grow up with dogs like I did, so he probably wasn't tuned in to the body language)

I refused to give his canister of Mace back to him, and instead, stuck it in my trouser pocket with the intention of giving it back to him later.

At one point, my shoelace came undone, so I crouched down and tied it.

I was puzzled to hear a hissing sound ignoring it initially, and then thinking a few seconds later "What the heck is that is that hissing sound?"

In the intervening years, I often associate my favorite Far Side cartoon with me, as I heard that sound of hissing while tying my shoe:

My entire crotch was soaked with Mace, as I had nearly emptied that small canister by the act of my bended leg pushing against the top of the unlocked canister.

I stood up, wondering what this meant for me, but I didn't have long to wait. As soon as I was aware my crotch was immersed in this liquid, it instantly felt as if someone had taken a chemical blowtorch to my franks and beans.

I was drinking a bottle of beer and in this group of people standing in bitter freezing cold in the woods of Vermont, without any hesitation or squeamishness about how it might look, I stuck the neck of that unfinished green bottle of St. Pauli Girl into my trousers and emptied it to the last drop.

No effect.

While everyone else looked at me in bafflement, I immediately turned, and without any explanation, ran at a full sprint back to the house. I was stripping off my trousers before I even got to the bathroom. When I got inside, I kneeled in the tub, my privates directly in the ice cold stream of water from the tub faucet, still getting absolutely no relief.

Even then, I fully grasped the absurdity and comedic value my friends were likely to find in this event. How could they not? Guys especially.

But to me, it felt similar to what I imagined the young Paul Atriedes in "Dune" must have felt when induced by the poison-needle Gom Jabbar held to his neck to keep his hand in the torture box as the flesh was burned away. I have been burned by nitric acid before, and that was what my crotch felt like.

I have no idea what Mace feels like when it gets in your eyes or in your lungs, and I don't ever want to know. But I know what it feels like when it saturates your entire crotch and everything attached to it!

November Golf!

[BBB333]

I was speaking to a couple from the DC area in September - they were visiting Yellowstone/Teton for vacation - this occurred in Belgrade, MT.

They asked me what to do with the bear spray they had: “How does it work? Say you are eating lunch do you just spray it around the area to keep the bears away?”

True story

[Larry Lucido]

[rlmorel]

Hahahaha! Excellent!

[Larry Lucido]

Apparently this is a real Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Polytechnica. Don’t know if their mascot is really polar bears, though.

[rlmorel]

No kidding!

[Keyhopper]

OMG that’s hilarious. I get the mental picture of that and get quite the chuckle. We’re giving you a new name.........
RUNNING CHIEF FIRE CROTCH

[rlmorel]

I was lucky nobody tortured me about it...but I sure wasn’t going to get lucky that night, either!

[clearcarbon]

"Russian Experience with Bear Spray and Polar Bear"

Some polar bears swear Russians taste better with a little pepper spray.