Gary Shelton makes his living training people on how to survive bear encounters. In addition to his Bear Safety Training Program, he’s authored two books: Bear Encounter Survival Guide and Bear Attacks - The Deadly Truth. Having lived most of his life in “bear country,” Shelton knows a thing or two about fending off a deadly attack.

Taken from his website, Shelton writes, “There are three possible strategies for dealing with bears, and each has a different success rate.” They are:

1. Play dead/fight back - 30 - 40% success rate

2. Bear spray - 75 - 80% success rate

3. Firearms - 95 - 100% success rate

Shelton has recorded numerous bear attacks and strongly recommends if you have no defense system at all, do not yell at a bear that is blowing, growling, or popping its teeth and trying to locate you visually. He suggests stand still and be quiet; it will most likely leave in a hurry after about a minute.

Given the above statistics and the fact that most people don’t own a firearm, bear spray offers the most accessible defense weapon. I must admit, I have a can of bear spray, but I have yet to ever take it from its holster.

Shelton admonishes, if you’re going into bear country you’d better have bear spray. He writes,”Every year in B.C. there are three to four people who save themselves from death or injury with sprays. Even though spray success runs at about 75%, it is a far better strategy than the ‘play dead/fight back’ concept.”

Here are his tips on using the peppery spray:

1. You need plenty of spray; the 260 gram size can or two smaller can- a small can only has two blasts in it
2. Your spray must be in a holster on your belt for quick use
3. Everyone in the group must have spray and be ready to use it simultaneously
4. The effect on the bear may be temporary, so leave immediately
5. If you’re dealing with a persistent bear and you’ve used up all your spray, beat the bear off with anything available
6. The bear must be sprayed at close range so if the wind is blowing in your direction, the bear will get more spray than you.

Bears, like people are unpredictable. It’s better to be prepared than caught off guard. If you’ve had any bear encounters I invite you to share them with us.

Cheers,

Julie

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 10:23 am and is filed under Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.