Posted on 07/30/2024 8:15:29 AM PDT by Red Badger
A man in British Columbia stopped a grizzly attack by punching the bear in the face. Some Wyoming bear experts say that say might work, but isn’t something anybody should try unless it’s a last ditch option.
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A man who stopped an attacking grizzly in British Columbia, Canada, by punching the bear the face was just as good as he was lucky, some experienced Wyoming outdoorsmen said.
It’s possible to fight off a grizzly with a stout punch to the snout, but only as an absolute last-ditch tactic.
“By that point, a lot of things will have gone wrong,” retired Forest Service and National Park ranger Richard Jones told Cowboy State Daily.
Jones’ father was also a park ranger, so he lived among bears in Yellowstone National Park as a child, and now lives in the North Fork near Cody, where grizzlies are common.
“I’ve deterred aggressive dogs and a lot of other animals with a smack to the nose. Most animals have a very sensitive nose,” Jones said.
Though rare, somebody surviving an attack by punching the bear isn’t unheard of, said retired federal ecologist Chuck Neal of Cody, who frequently hikes in grizzly country.
“Since the nose, along with eyes, is probably the most sensitive spot on a bear's body, a severe blow there has in the past successfully caused the bear to change her mind about the attack,” he said.
Man Says His Bike Helped Save The Day According to reports, the unidentified man told Canadian wildlife officers that he was mountain biking in a forested area when he had a surprise encounter with a mother grizzly and two cubs.
The mother bear charged him and knocked him down, but he kept his bicycle between himself and the bear, according to reports.
He told wildlife officers that just when he figured that he was out of options, he recalled accounts of a man who had stopped a bear by punching it in the nose.
So he swung as hard as he could, smacked the grizzly a good one, and the startled mamma bear broke off her attack, according to reports.
The extent of the man’s injuries wasn’t reported, but he was able to get back on his bicycle and ride until he found help.
‘Not Quite As Unique As It Sounds’ Neal said there have been other accounts of people punching grizzlies.
“This situation is not quite as unique as it sounds,” he said. “It has been done before, and the man got away with it. See William Wright's book ‘The Grizzly Bear’ from 1909, for example,” he said.
Smacking a grizzly in the snout will probably work if the bear is being defensive, Neal added.
“However, it was usually done when the bear was attacking defensively such as a mother with young,” he said.
Grizzlies almost never attack people with the intent of trying to kill and eat them. But when that happens, all bets are off, Neal said.
“In the case of a predacious attack, then the victim must fight back with everything that he has, and the nose and eyes should be his top targets,” Neal said.
But getting oneself into a situation where throwing hands at a grizzly is the only option isn’t something Neal recommends.
In those overwhelming majority of attacks where a grizzly is being defensive, Neal recommends using bear spray and “playing dead.”
Just Avoid The Situation To Begin With Jones said that in his experience, “animals don’t really have any sense of proportion,” so a grizzly might not realize how much bigger it is than the person it’s attacking.
So, it could be that a person wiling to deliver a stiff poke to the nose will appear to be the big, bad one from the bear’s perspective, he said.
However, like Neal, he noted that testing the likelihood of punching a grizzly working in one’s favor isn’t wise. It’s best to stay alert in grizzly country and avoid run-ins with bears to begin with.
Prominent Wyoming outdoorsman Guy Eastman agreed that fists are the last thing anybody should consider using against grizzly.
He’s hunted all over the world, including for grizzlies in British Columbia.
In a dire situation “you do what you can, I guess,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “I don’t think a punch from a human would be much of a deterrent for a bear. Shooting it would be better.”
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Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
Unbearable Ping!........................
If a grizzly is close enough for you to punch, you are at your last ditch option.
If a grizzly is close enough for you to punch, you are at your last ditch option.
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Maybe not.
I don’t understand why a bear would be close enough to you for you to punch, but not gashing you with it’s claws or pouncing down on you with it’s weight and subsequently taking a big bite. It would be odd for a bear to be that close but not on a full aggressive charge, but if he was, then maybe he wasn’t being aggressive toward you at all and you were just in it’s way, in which case a punch in the snout could be a provocation.
If a bear is just doing a threat display, it tends to stand back and make very aggressive noises and posturing.
Every bear has a plan until he gets punched in the nose!
I worked for the US Forest Service clearing trail.
I came to a point in the trail where Huckleberries had completely overgrown the trail.
They were tall.
I put the brush saw on the ground and pulled the cord to start it.
The next few seconds are kind of fuzzy.
A bear exploded out of those bushes.
If that bear had attacked me, I would have been a goner.
They are really fast in short distances.
You will do what you can do to try and survive.
I don’t think Bear-Fu will do you much good though.
Bear-Fu!...............😁
Back in the 70’s the rangers at Blackrock State Park up in Rabun County, GA used to carry baseball bats to pop aggressive black bears on the nose.
I don’t ever want to get that close!.....................
I don’t believe it!
if find yourself that close, it might be the best (if not the onliest) option
If I ever decide to go walking -or biking - in Grizzly country, I will punch that charging bear with my 7.62mm semiautomatic, gas-operated shoulder weapon.
Wowee!! Well, if there is nothing else a person can do, do it!!
Me neither. 😆
Eek!
Did you have to change shorts afterwards!?
Glad you came out ok.
What an idiotic article. If a bear is trying to kill you, punching it in the nose might be your best chance at survival. You don’t want to think it through, oh how wise it might be or the likelihood that it might work or not.
A human punch would not be very consequential to a grizzly. A year-old grizzly cub would be about 200 pounds and vastly stronger than a human. However, it would be no match for an adult grizzly, boar or sow, who attacked in a determined manner.
It didn’t happen! I’d bet money on it.
If he’s close enough for you to punch in the face you may as well give it a try. Otherwise it’s over. You’re an ursine Twinkie.
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