← Wild Animal Encounters: What to Do to Survive
Lesson
Lesson 2. Defensive or predatory attack — two opposite responses
Tell a bear's defensive and predatory attacks apart and remember: “play dead” works only in a defensive attack; in a predatory one, your only option is to fight back.
One fork decides everything
Defensive or predatory
If it comes to contact, one question decides everything: is the bear defending itself or hunting? The responses are opposite, and mixing them up is the costliest mistake.
Almost all attacks are defensive: a surprise encounter, cubs or a carcass nearby. The bear makes noise, warns, bluff-charges. If contact is unavoidable, lie flat on your stomach: fingers laced behind your neck, elbows covering your face, legs spread so you're hard to roll over, your pack protecting your back. Lie still and stay quiet. If it rolls you over, roll back onto your stomach. The bear stops once “the threat is neutralized”; stay still a long time, as it may be watching.
Predatory behavior is rare, but the rules are reversed. The bear silently pursues you, circles, comes into camp at night, tears at the tent. Don't play dead — that's serving yourself up as a meal. Fight with everything you have: spray in the face, a stick, a knife, rocks, blows to the nose and eyes, loud shouting. People have fought bears off — bears don't like prey that costs too much.
The polar bear is a special case: in the Arctic it treats a human as fair game by default. No one goes there without an escort, armed protection, and deterrents, and any attack is treated as predatory. In North America, the black bear is the other exception: if a black bear attacks, don't play dead — fight back.
Lesson notes
Defensive or predatory
If it comes to contact, one question decides everything: is the bear defending itself or hunting? The responses are opposite, and mixing them up is the costliest mistake.
Almost all attacks are defensive: a surprise encounter, cubs or a carcass nearby. The bear makes noise, warns, bluff-charges. If contact is unavoidable, lie flat on your stomach: fingers laced behind your neck, elbows covering your face, legs spread so you're hard to roll over, your pack protecting your back. Lie still and stay quiet. If it rolls you over, roll back onto your stomach. The bear stops once “the threat is neutralized”; stay still a long time, as it may be watching.
Predatory behavior is rare, but the rules are reversed. The bear silently pursues you, circles, comes into camp at night, tears at the tent. Don't play dead — that's serving yourself up as a meal. Fight with everything you have: spray in the face, a stick, a knife, rocks, blows to the nose and eyes, loud shouting. People have fought bears off — bears don't like prey that costs too much.
The polar bear is a special case: in the Arctic it treats a human as fair game by default. No one goes there without an escort, armed protection, and deterrents, and any attack is treated as predatory. In North America, the black bear is the other exception: if a black bear attacks, don't play dead — fight back.