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A Massachusetts man survived what officials are calling a “surprise attack” by two grizzlies on Sunday at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, authorities said. According to Jeremy Barnum, Grand Teton’s chief of staff, the 35-year-old man, who has not been identified, was in stable condition, the Jackson Hole News & Guide reported. The man had a “surprise encounter” with two grizzlies in the Signal Mountain Area of the park Sunday afternoon, according to the Cowboy State Daily. According to a news release from the National Park Service, one of the bears attacked the victim, inflicting serious injuries. “Grand Teton...

Many readers are interested in how various handgun calibers have performed in defense against bears. This is a complicated subject. Sometimes, any caliber will do. Sometimes a level of power may be required. Sometimes, a level of accuracy or speed may be required. Many permutations exist. The most important aspect, if a confrontation occurs, is to have a firearm available, easily and quickly accessible. The specific caliber is less important. These updates include all the incidents we have been able to document to the date of the update, after several years of intense searches. We have always asked for examples...

Many readers are interested in how various handgun calibers have performed in defense against bears. This is a complicated subject. Sometimes, any caliber will do. Sometimes a level of power may be required. Sometimes, a level of accuracy or speed may be required. Many permutations exist. The most important aspect, if a confrontation occurs, is to have a firearm available, easily and quickly accessible. The specific caliber is less important. These updates include all the incidents we have been able to document to the date of the update, after several years of intense searches. We always appreciate readers who help...

The use of handguns as a defense against bears has been shown to be effective 98% of the time. In this study, all cases that can be documented, where a handgun was fired in defense against a bear, are included. This is done by design to guard against selection bias. All cases cite the source for the case information. Unlike other attempts to put a number on how effective handguns, long guns, or bear spray are in defending against bears, every case is described to readers so they can come to their own conclusions. Readers may disregard any incidents at...

Her experience brings new meaning to the "bear vs. man" question.While social media users debate if they’d rather be left alone in the woods with a bear or a man, one woman is considering herself “lucky” after surviving a real bear attack. A Scottish tourist was mauled by a bear in Romania. Friends Moira Gallacher and Charmian Widdowson were visiting the Carpathian Mountains when they encountered a group of bears, according to Scottish news outlet STV. Widdowson said, “We saw these bears — a mummy bear and a baby — they were gorgeous.” What the women didn’t know was that...

In 2014, John Gookin, Tom Smith, and Alison Williams published a paper in Human-Wildlife Interactions titled: A Device for Refilling Practice Bear Spray Canisters. The paper shows how to build and use the device. This correspondent has long maintained bear spray has a valid place as a means of protection against bears. Bear spray does not appear to be as effective in stopping bear attacks as handguns. This does not mean it is not useful. Bear spray can work effectively as a device to haze bears which are merely curious. Bear spray is generally a better deterrent than shouting or...

There’s a viral trend on TikTok that got started with a seemingly simple question: Would women rather run into a bear or a man in the woods? Now people are discussing the fact that a lot of women have admitted to preferring the bear. USA Today reports how this debate — simply referred to as “Man vs. Bear” — is said to have been started by TikTok account, Screenshot HQ, who posted a video of women being asked this question seemingly around the United Kingdom about a week or so ago. By the end of the video, all the woman...

The “Five Little Ducks” were met with a grizzly end. A zoo bear named Juniper shocked guests at a girl’s birthday party after devouring ducklings that had landed in its enclosure, as seen in a video with over 2 million views on TikTok. “A #natgeo trainwreck for my daughters’ birthday, thanks JUNIPER,” mother Rachelle captioned the clip of the impromptu feeding. She and her fellow revelers, which comprised both adults and children, had reportedly been celebrating her daughter’s birthday at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington. The bash took a turn when the party-goers stopped by the bear exhibit...

On March 8, 2024, the Florida legislature overwhelmingly voted for the HB0087: Taking of Bears. The Bill restores the ability of people in Florida to protect themselves, their pets, and dwellings from Florida black bears, which were administratively taken from them in 2012. The population of Florida black bears has skyrocketed, along with complaints and damage done by bears, particularly in Northern Florida.Florida legislative procedures require the governor to sign bills (after the legislature adjourns) within 15 days, or they become law without his signature. The timing starts when the governor receives the bill from the legislature.SECTION 8. Executive approval...

Attempting to quantify the effectiveness of defensive methods for use against bears suffers from significant selection bias. It is impractical to enlist large numbers of volunteers, randomly select half, give half a method of protection, leave the others as a control group, and place both in equal chances of being attacked. Instead, we rely on gathering data from people who were attacked and who had various types of defensive weapons. Obtaining a valid sample is nearly impossible because successful defenses have a strong bias of not being reported. The more spectacularly a defense fails, the more likely it is to...

I am doing research on bear attacks. A significant number happen on the Island of Hokkaido in Japan. The number of fatal attacks varies, usually between 0-4 in the last few years. I have numbers for 2018, 2019, and 2020. I need them for 2016, 2017, and 2021. Japanese authorities started tracking bear attacks a number of years ago, so the data is there. Finding it is the problem. Bear attacks in Japan are much better covered there than in the international press. Any help would be appreciated.

Carrying a gun for defensive purposes, with an empty chamber, is a controversial measure which proponents claim enhances safety. It is one of the reasons handguns appear to work better for self defense against bears than long guns. Long guns are more commonly carried with an empty chamber than are handguns. Handguns are more commonly carried for self defense than long guns. A recent bear attack illustrates the problem of carrying a long gun with an empty chamber. From Alaskapublic.org 2021: “I remember looking over my shoulder, and I was saying something to them when I kind of heard the...

James Albert Maierle was a well-known educator and sportsman born in 1942 in Calumet, Michigan. He was an enthusiastic hunter, fisherman, and woodsman. He is well known in his local area and published a few stories in hunting magazines. He died in 2022. His son related the circumstances of his father’s shooting of a black bear in self-defense in the early 1960s on the Montreal River in the upper peninsula of Michigan. The location is only a few miles from where Maierle grew up. The area was pretty wild in the early 1960s. After the major copper mine shut down...

One of the persistent myths about shooting bears in self-defense is a bear’s skull is nearly bulletproof. Bears skulls are not bulletproof. However, bear heads are big. It is easy to miss the brain or spine if you aim at the wrong spot or aim away from the brain because you are afraid the bullet will “bounce off.” This is exacerbated by trophy hunters’ hesitancy to shoot a bear in the head. A powerful shot to the brain cavity will fracture the skull, making measurement for the record books impossible.It is difficult to hit the brain of a bear if...