Bear and Lion Avoidance Rules

Populations of mountain lions and bears have increased.  Encounters with human beings are more frequent.  What can you do to make certain these meetings do not harm you or the bear?

Rule one:  Avoid hiking, fishing and biking alone in bear and lion habitat.  Traveling with two or more companions lowers the odds of one of your party being attacked.  Make certain the following safety and avoidance rules have been discussed with each member of your group.  A unprepared child may panic and run, triggering a violent response from a large predator.  Lions are most likely to attack a solitary individual, perhaps after stalking its prey for some distance.  I had a close encounter with a lion while filming some Native American shelters gouged into the cliff walls of Devil's Canyon (Wyoming).  It had been staking me, and a sudden turn around on my part, jumped the cougar.  It flashed by about twenty feet below me.  

Rule two:  Carry a large volume high decibel boat horn and a large volume can of pepper spray.  A wildlife photographer told me he has never had to use his pepper spray, that his boat horn has always deterred nosy bears.  Bear specific pepper spray canisters shoot a cloud of spray thirty feet (called hazing).  A bear can cover that distance in one second--be ready, be accurate, get lucky.  As for lions, they typically stalk their prey and ambush them.  Pepper spray may be worthless, but striking the lion with the canister (or any other readily available weapon) may deter the animals mauling.  With a lion fight back, carry a weapon and use it.  With a bear play dead...Or is it the other way around.  Hopefully, you are never in a position to choose.  Remember the animals have not read these rules, expect the unpredictable.

Rule three:  Should you stumble on a bear or lion, stop, keep an eye on the animal and sidle away slowly.  Try to keep a grizzly at least 100 yards from you.  Plan your skirt around trouble with this distance in mind.  Bears appear to have a comfort zone, once you get inside it, the possibility of a charge increases.  A true story:  This Canadian pulled his truck to the shoulder to avoid a dead cougar lying in the road (between China Beach and Jordan river, west of Sooke on Vancouver Island).  He climbed from his pickup, grabbed the lion by the tail to jerk it off the road.  The beast jumped straight up, and ran into the bush.   

Rule four:  Keep your camp site impeccably clean.  Leave nothing outside your vehicle: no dirty clothes, no food, no fish or game, no pet food, fish bait, coffee or toilet paper, nothing that could draw a  hungry or curious bear.  Wear only clean, fresh clothes to bed.  Pack food, dirty clothes, cooking utensils, food, underwear, et. al. in your vehicle, then park your vehicle as far away as you feel comfortable.  Brush your teeth a long distance from camp, and blast the paste and water from your mouth forming a vaporous mist.  Remove all trash, waste water, anything that may have an animal drawing odor to a bear "safe"--a metal garbage holder found at campsites.  If no metal "safe" is available store the waste in your car. 

Rule five:  Avoid hikes at dawn and dusk, typical hunting times for lions.  On day hikes (say in the Lamar Valley, Yellowstone) avoid small clumps of trees in open areas.  Bears often take a mid morning nap in these cool, shady spots.  They don't like being aroused.

Rule six:  If pursued, make yourself large.  When you are in the sights of a bear or lion, raise your arms and wave them, wave a shirt, make noise, as you back away to a safer distance.

Rule seven:  When covering ground bears typically continue in the direction they are headed, they have a route.  Stay off it.  If they are heading left to right, you head right to left, move away slowly, steadily. Never run away, that may spark the "chase" response--a race you cannot win.  Once I inadvertently trapped a bear between the ocean and me.  He was eating fish or mollusks along a tidal flat in British Columbia.  I was hiking above him near the forest line.  The trapped animal charged, I turned and ran, broke all the rules.  The bear didn't have a script either.  He loped straight ahead into the woods and disappeared.

Rule eight:  Make noise.  Wear bells, talk, sing, shout periodically.  You will not see lions and bears, and that may be exactly what you want.  For those who would film or enjoy seeing an animal, bring along binoculars, stay put and climb to high over view in prime bear country like Cache creek, Slough creek, and the Lamar river of Yellowstone.

Rule nine:  Lions eat deer.  Be careful walking deer trails (often the easiest way through the bush).  Lions also mark their territory.  Their spray is powerful, will knock you off your feet.  If you smell it (like ten gallons of cat musk) you are sharing your walk with a lion, find another route and safer company.

More rules:  Avoid dense cover in bear and lion country the animal you jump may jump you.  Stay away from kills, dead animals these predators have been feeding on.  Stay off bear trails that lead to salmon streams, you are trespassing and the prosecution is ruthless.

My "Take Jill" Rule:  Take my wife with you.  With Jill at my side, I have never been surprised by an animal.  Her bells, her singing, her shrieking hollers and constant badgering, her heart stopping boat horn blasts have kept us safe all these years.

For many the sight of a grizzly or mountain lion is a lifelong memory, a rare moment not to be forgotten.  Hopefully, all your moments are pleasant ones, at a safe distance watching the beast through heavy lenses.