How to protect yourself from a bear in the forest. What to do when meeting with a wild animal in the forest? Make sudden movements

If you find yourself in the forest, and you do not have a goal to hunt, then meeting with a bear will be an unpleasant surprise. Not every hunter is able to rationally make decisions about how to scare away a bear or defend himself, not to mention an unprepared and unarmed person. The bear lives in mixed or coniferous forest, preferring it instead of the plains. He chooses a habitat in such a way that all conditions are created for the construction of a winter den. As a rule, this is a dense forest with the presence of reservoirs, swamps, with old plantations and clearings. The animal is most active closer to dusk, but during the day it can be found while searching for food.

As a rule, a bear can attack a person in the following cases: if it is disturbed during hibernation, injured or taken by surprise with prey. Bears attack more often if there are cubs nearby. In December, a meeting with a bear in the forest is unlikely; by this time, he falls into hibernation, even if the winter turned out to be warm. But, if a collision occurs in winter, run away from the beast, because the connecting rod bear will not miss the opportunity to deal with a person. This animal is least dangerous in summer, when there is enough food in the forest.

The surest way to stay unharmed is to avoid a bear. If you're in deep dense mixed forest, the danger of such a meeting is very likely.

In summer, it can be difficult to clearly identify a bear trail on the ground in order to respond in time by changing your route. In the spring, when the snow has not yet melted, this is easier to do. The bear rarely walks in deep snow for a long time, so the trail left will probably be fresh, which will allow us to draw conclusions about the presence of the animal nearby.

The easiest way to protect yourself from encountering a bear is not to walk into the forest lands alone. As a rule, he is afraid of a group of people.

You should move away as quickly as possible, barely noticing a group of cubs. Next to them is always a formidable predator.

In order not to lure the beast, you should never leave leftover food, food debris, other garbage and a landfill after folding the camp. In no case should he have associations about the connection between a person and the smell of food. It is also not necessary to bury the remains of food, because the beast will be able to dig them out from a considerable depth underground. Food waste should be taken out to a place strictly defined for this, if this is not possible, then it should be burned. During the night, all food should be inaccessible to the animal - carefully hidden and packaged. If the camp is divided into long time, storehouses should be built, on which boxes of food are raised. In addition, you can not take food with a strong smell (smoked meats, herbs or spices, etc.) into the forest.

Do not approach the remains of animals or fish that could be prey for a bear.

It is not recommended to carry a can of gasoline or similar chemicals with you, as the bear is attracted to their smell. If gasoline is needed to refuel the car, it is best to leave it near the vehicle.

You must not stand in the animal's only escape route. In this situation, there is nothing left for him but to attack a person.

How to scare away a bear

To avoid this, you need to follow the route laid in the woodlands and open flat areas. In these places, you can notice a bear in time in order to take measures for self-defense, to frighten him. Being in the wilderness, you need to talk loudly, periodically shouting to each other. In this case, you can make loud noises using a regular bicycle bell, or by tapping a bowler hat or an iron flask with a spoon. Making noise in order to scare away a bear is due to the fact that he has a good sense of smell and eyesight, but bad hearing. Therefore, if you behave quietly and imperceptibly, an unexpected meeting of a bear with you can frighten it away, or it can provoke an attack. Therefore, it will be better if the animal hears you from afar.

You should not make your way along animal paths and go through dense thickets for a long time. Closer to dusk or at night, you should avoid passing along the coast, where salmon is found or along the spawning ground.

Traveling by bike can lead to a faster encounter with a bear than walking, because the journey is faster and quieter, along animal trails. The faster the tourist moves, the higher the probability of an unexpected collision with an animal. To avoid this, as with walking, you need to make loud sounds and signals from time to time.

It is widely believed that if a dog runs nearby, it scares away the beast. Contrary to this misconception, when meeting with a bear, even a large dog will not save a person, but, on the contrary, is able to attract him with his smell and anger him even more.

Meeting Behavior

The main rule when meeting with this animal is not to underestimate it, but to treat it as a formidable, strong and dangerous predator.

If the bear is caught while fishing, you should immediately stop it, if the fish is not removed from the hook, you need to cut the fishing line. The animal may think that an attempt is being made on its prey and react extremely aggressively. In addition, the association between a person and available food is undesirable.

The most important thing to do when encountering a brown bear is to remain calm. You can not make sudden movements, turn sharply and run. Seeing how a person runs away, the hunting instinct wakes up, which provokes the animal to chase. You need to let the animal know that you have noticed it, and identify yourself. As a rule, when meeting a bear, he stands on hind legs to better see the person in front of you. If he does not take a step forward, you should slowly and carefully move away along a diagonal path. If he is determined to move towards him, it is better to freeze in one place, take off his backpack and put it next to him. The bear is afraid of those who are taller than him and larger in size. If a person is not alone, one should climb onto each other's shoulders, raise sticks, oars, and other objects above their heads, waving their arms, speak loudly or whistle, clap their hands. At the same time, it is impossible to scream piercingly or imitate a bearish roar. You can take off the jacket and open it up, simulating a large object. If the group consists of several people, you can join hands to form a large unified whole.

Loud noises can scare him away, so it's best to hit the pot with a spoon. You can use your mobile phone with loud music playing. The main thing at the same time is not to panic and not try to run away from the bear. Often the animal comes too close, but does not attack, trying to intimidate the object.

You can not look the animal directly in the eyes. It is better to look at him with peripheral vision so as not to let the situation get out of control, while slowly backing away.

When meeting a sleeping bear, you need to make as little noise as possible and leave as quickly as possible. If you caught him during a meal, the main thing to do is to show complete indifference to bear prey with all your appearance. You should say something loudly, slowly stepping back, without turning your back.

A collision with a group of animals is the most dangerous, because it can be either animals during the rut, or a she-bear with offspring, or a group of young individuals. The last option is easier in terms of scaring away, because they have not yet encountered a person and are afraid of him.

In case of an unplanned meeting on the hunt, it is better to shoot in the air, but not in it. A wounded animal is especially dangerous. If you have a rocket launcher with you, it will be effective in scaring away an animal.

If you spot a bear on the road while driving, do not stop or feed it. Firstly, it will turn him into easy prey, and secondly, it will cause a strong association between a person and available food, which is dangerous when meeting him in the forest.

Protection methods

Unfortunately, the beast does not always attack a person if there is any provocation, for example, it sees a fleeing creature. He often attacks for no apparent reason.

If you do not have any weapons with you, you need to proceed as follows:

Put any large object in front of you, for example, a backpack, a bucket, a basket. A voluminous object will divert the attention of the beast from you.
You have to pretend to be dead. Lie flat on the ground with your stomach down, covering your head with your hands, and do not move. At the same time, you need to try to maintain this position even when the animal sniffs. There is an opinion that you need to curl up without moving. However, this may awaken curiosity in the animal, and it may begin to turn over its prey. Considering the size of bear claws, few people can stand it.
You should not move as long as the animal is nearby, so as not to provoke a new attack.

When hiking in the forest, where a meeting with a bear is most likely, you should keep a special pepper spray with you, designed to resist large predators. It is better to put it in your pocket, not a backpack, so you can get it as soon as possible. It is worth using it only if the bear is attacking, and the minimum distance between them is maintained by the victim. Otherwise, the aerosol will serve as an unnecessary irritant. A similar situation with a gun: it should be used only when you are sure that you will hit right on target, and do not injure the beast. Weak spots bear are the eyes and nose. In the absence of a gun, you can use any sharp object, observing the accuracy of the blow. It is for this that it is necessary to remain calm: life in bear paws depends on the accuracy and confidence of movements.

- Who are you, man?

- I am a tourist!

— No, man, you're a tourist's breakfast!

(Joke)

Man is the crown of nature. Man passes everywhere like a master, except for those forests, fields and rivers where he may encounter the first everlasting master of Russian lands - the bear. Behind last years in Siberia, interest in hunting these animals fell somewhat. Maybe for this reason, or maybe for some other reason, but so many clubfoot have bred that they already literally walk the streets of Siberian cities.

Of course, they are not found in the city center, but on the outskirts, but the fact remains: today in Siberia, a bear can be found on the territory of any, even the largest, regional center. So, for example, in the Tomsk region with a population of about 1 million people, the number of bears is about 9000. It turns out that there is 1 bear per 110 people. The statistics are very intriguing, if not dangerous.

A bear, along with a man and a pig, is an omnivore animal, that is, it equally successfully eats both meat and herbs, roots, nuts, fish, and in general everything that can be eaten in principle. Since the bear will have to survive a long winter hibernation without food, it feeds tirelessly all the warm season in order to accumulate a sufficient amount of subcutaneous fat. The whole order of a bear's life is devoted exclusively to nutrition: food-sleep, food-sleep, food-sleep ...

If there is enough food in the forest, then the man is not interested in the bear, and troubles happen only when a person suddenly meets a bear, or if the person himself (accidentally or on purpose) provokes the beast to attack. The period when the bear is hungry and dares to go out to human habitation itself is usually short - this is spring and early summer, when there is still little food for such a large animal in the forest.

These are general information about bears, which are familiar to many Russians. But the fisherman, and even more so the hunter, needs to know much more about the bear in order not to become a "tourist's breakfast".

Brown bear

The bear got its name from a combination of two words "med-Ved". "Honey" - honey, and "ved" - knows, knows. In other words, the bear is "knowing where the honey is." And his nickname - "eared" - the bear got because of the special gait. When a bear walks on the ground, it places its paws slightly inward. The bear is a pacer, that is, he alternately steps on both right legs, then on both left.

Bears live on average 35-40 years, but some individuals live up to 50 years or more. This large beast reaches a weight of 500-700 kg and a height of 2.5-3 m. In appearance, the brown bear is clumsy, but in reality it is capable of picking up speed up to 50 km / h from a standstill in one second. A bear can run a short distance (“a hundred meters”) at a speed of 60 km / h, and even a horse cannot run away from it for a short distance when starting from a place. Moreover, it is interesting that the bear runs even faster uphill, since its hind legs are longer than its front ones. A brown bear can climb trees (albeit in "childhood" and "youthful" age) and swim.

There is practically no one to be afraid of a bear in the taiga. Sometimes wolves are an inconvenience. Therefore, the only person the bear is afraid of (or rather, avoids meeting) is a person. Bear hunting is carried out primarily for hunting passion. Although it must be admitted that the bear has quite tasty meat (which must be checked by a veterinarian before eating), bear fat is good, and the bear skin serves as an excellent decoration. Recently, the Chinese have been actively buying up bear paws, either for the preparation of some kind of medicine, or maybe an exotic dish. By the way, a dish of bear paws has long been prepared in Russia, and is not a Chinese invention, as many believe.

Habitat and food

Where there is food, there is a bear. In the daytime, the bear mostly hides and feeds in forests and ravines, and at dusk and at night it goes out into open areas.

In spring and early summer, the bear gets the most meager food, so it comes especially close to human habitation. At this time, the beast eats young shoots and roots, the first spring mushrooms. He digs out ant nests, peels bark from old stumps and trees, finds bark beetles in rotten trees. The eggs of birds found do not remain intact either. Along the way, the bear eats small rodents and frogs. In a word, it eats everything that moves and grows. With the appearance of one or another type of food, the bear immediately switches to this ripened object. The basis of its menu throughout the summer and autumn are berries, mushrooms and cedar cones.

Often bears enter rivers and lakes to swim and drink, and not to fish. Purposefully, bears catch fish mainly on Far East where during spawning it is concentrated in large quantities. Of course, not in such volumes, but also in Siberia, in separate small rivers and drying lakes, bears quite successfully catch carp and other fish.

Naturally, if luck smiles at a bear, he will not fail to kill an elk or a reindeer. From domestic animals, cows and horses get the most from the bear. He does not disdain carrion.

In autumn, during the period of food abundance, bears intensively accumulate fat, and with it nutrients for winter sleep. At this time, they determine for themselves a place for a lair. As a rule, this is a dry place under fallen trees or a stump turned out with roots. With the onset of frost and the first snowfall, the bears go to bed. Although quite rare, it happens that some bears do not have time to accumulate enough subcutaneous fat. Such an underfed bear (rod) will not go to sleep until it has had its fill. In search of food, he often goes to human habitation and attacks people. Connecting rods are tracked through the snow quite simply and quickly. If one or two weeks after the snow cover has been established, someone encounters bear tracks in the snow, then, anticipating a possible tragedy, you should immediately inform the hunters about this, who will immediately shoot the dangerous predator.

Security measures

In the vast majority of cases, the bear itself will avoid meeting with a person. Therefore, you should not be afraid to make noise in the forest, and even, on the contrary, you should always make yourself known so that the bear has the opportunity to smell you from afar and get out of your way. It is not necessary to shoot in the air or shout loudly to do this. It is enough just not to hide your presence: talking loudly, stepping on branches and rattling iron.

If you have someone else with you, all the better, this is almost a 100 percent guarantee against meeting a bear. But even one person is often enough for the bear to retreat. When a shepherd tends a herd of cows near the edge of a forest, the bears usually do not attack the herd. In the absence of a shepherd, bears will not fail to feast on domestic animals. Having a dog with you is also good, its loud barking will alert the bear, and even if it is not trained in bear-baiting, it will at least let you know about its presence.

In any case, it will not be superfluous to avoid moving to those places where you can meet the owner of the forest. Do not move along bear trails, which differ from others in their width, and, of course, the presence of bear tracks. In any case, it is better to move through open places and woodlands, where you will notice the beast not so much as it will notice you. Bears most often follow people from afar, from small manes and hills, and when you approach their ambush, they either leave it or hide.

If there is a big harvest pine nuts, the bear even forgets about the fear of humans and moves to cedar forests. It is the nut that gives the bear the most fat and useful substances. On the berry fields, the bear is not so greedy and calmly gives way to a person.

Since the bear is a twilight and nocturnal animal, it is better for you to spend this time by the fire. Before going to bed, you can kindle two at once, on both sides of your overnight stay.

If in the spring, when there is still snow, you come across the trail of a brown bear, turn back or try to bypass the place of the supposed location of the animal in an open area of the forest. The bear does not make long transitions in the snow, so the track encountered, even if it is quite old, is an indicator of its presence in the immediate vicinity.

How to drive the "ber" away from human habitation?

Since the life of a bear is mainly subordinated to the extraction of food, easy prey is especially desirable for him. And if the beast went to human habitation and found a lot of food in the garbage cans, it will be impossible to drive it away from such “free” food. The same fate awaits the huts of fishermen and hunters in the forest. If there is no food and food leftovers in the huts, then the bear, of course, will “play pranks” a little, wrinkle the dishes, but leave and is unlikely to return here. And most importantly, the bear will know that the smell of a person does not carry anything good, including food. The bear, having found its livelihood on human territory, can then cease to be afraid of a person at all and will begin to enter settlements.

Therefore, on the territory of settlements bordering forests, there should not be any food waste dumps. Moreover, nothing can be buried either, bears are able to smell food even deep underground. They will come and dig. In hunting huts, all garbage and food waste must be burned or taken to a place far from habitation.

To store food in the forest, special storehouses are built on pillars upholstered with sheet iron. The height of the storage shed above the ground is at least 4-5 m. If it is not possible to upholster the poles with metal, you can wrap them with barbed wire.

Human actions when meeting with an animal

Giving advice is easier than doing it. But in the case of the bear, there are a lot of proven patterns of behavior, and if you do not lose your temper, then in the vast majority of cases everything will do without consequences.

There are fundamental general principles: do not panic, do not turn your back on the beast and do not run. The bear may instinctively rush after you, as some yard dogs do. Possible options encounters with a bear are not so many, let's try to consider the most likely of them.

If you spot a bear from afar

Try to make yourself known by shouting and other sounds so that the bear notices you in advance and disappears. It is much easier and safer to scare away a bear at a distance.

If the bear stood on its hind legs

This does not mean that he was going to attack. Thus, he studies the area and tries to visually find you, because he has already found you by smell and hearing. Help him with this and let him go home.

If you come across a bear sleeping or eating food

Try to just as quietly, without turning your back on him, go back. If the bear did not smell you (you were not walking from the side of the wind), then you have a chance to return unnoticed. You can run only by moving away to a decent distance (at least 50-100 m), or leaving the visibility zone.

If the bear spotted you

Try to show that you don't need his food. Stand tall, speak loudly, and back away slowly. You should not look the beast directly in the eyes - all predators perceive this as an act of direct aggression. You can raise any object or stick above your head and thereby, albeit symbolically, but increase your height. All animals instinctively fear animals taller than themselves.

Dangerous meeting not only with the connecting rod, but with a group of bears

This may be a female with cubs (sometimes with a keeper), or young bears driven out by the female, who, entering into adult life, at first they still go in pairs. Well, during the spring rut, bears can often walk in groups. Such meetings are the most dangerous, since it is enough for one of the animals to “break loose”, and then both will immediately attack you. But such meetings are extremely rare, and only good self-control can help you here.

Is a dog helpful when meeting a bear?

It all depends on the dog. On the one hand, she can scare away a bear with her bark from afar or let you know about his approach. On the other hand, when meeting with a bear, if the dog gets scared and rushes in your direction, then instinctively the beast can rush after it and attack you, and not to scare you, but to kill you. So decide for yourself whether you will feel safer with or without a dog.

If you found a teddy bear

Do not take pictures or take it in your hands. If the she-bear notices you during this process, her attack will be immediate and deadly. Even hunters do not pick up a lonely bear cub in the forest for several days. And only after watching him for several days and making sure that his mother really lost him, they take the bear cub and feed it. If the young animal is healthy and quickly restores strength, then it should be released into the forest as soon as possible. So he will have a chance to survive in wild nature. After a long stay with a person, the bear cub will no longer be able to return to the forest, and its destiny is a circus or a zoo. And even if he takes root in the forest, he will often go out to human habitation (because he will not be afraid of a person), and sooner or later he will be killed.

If you meet a bear with a gun in your hands

If the beast is far away, then it is better to shoot in the air to defuse the situation. You need to shoot the beast only in the very last resort. Even if a bear is approaching you, this does not mean that it will attack you. The bear is able to run 10 m in 1 second, so don't let him go more than this distance. A distance of 5-10 m is the most lethal for an accurate hit in the heart. You can’t shoot at the head - bullets bounce off the bear’s skull. And in general, you can shoot at a bear only from really lethal weapons with heavy bullets. And if you are not sure about your weapon, then shooting is not recommended at all. If without a shot you had a chance to disperse peacefully, then the wounded bear is very vengeful and will not leave you alive.

What happens if you kill a bear that attacked you?

Bear hunting requires a license. The law interprets the unlicensed killing of a bear as follows (recently explained by a huntsman friend): if you were hunting a duck and a bear came out to you and behaved aggressively, you have the right to kill him without legal consequences. But if you were picking berries in the forest and a bear came out to you, and you killed him, you can be punished either with a fine or criminally liable. Of course, it is unlikely that you will be brought to criminal liability, but such imperfection of laws causes discontent among most hunters. In the first case, you had a license to hunt waterfowl and you have the right to use weapons, and in the second case, you do not have to use weapons under any pretext (since you do not have a license), even defending own life. But what owner of a gun would go to the forest for berries, mushrooms, or for a cedar cone without a weapon? Soon it will be possible to shoot at a bully without warning in the street, but to shoot at a predator, even in defense of one's own life, is impossible.

bear attack on human

If the bear is aggressive and you understand that he will attack you now, try to offer him what you have in your hands: berries, nuts, fish, etc. At the same time, do not forget to back away, but do not run. If the bear is interested in your "bribe", you will have a chance to sneak away.

It would be useful to use a balloon with a special agent (necessarily with a pepper composition). But you can use it effectively if you direct the jet from a very close distance into the eyes or mouth of the beast. That is, directly with a direct attack on you.

If you have a decent caliber knife, you can and should use it, but again, only in close contact with a bear. You will most likely only have one chance, and you need to use it in cold blood and strike right in the heart. It was not possible to hit in the heart, hit the eyes with a knife and try to roll away from the bear, hide behind a tree, in a word, get out of sight.

Sometimes unarmed people were saved by pretending to be dead. The man fell to the ground, shrunk into a fetal position, and so lay motionless. It is known that a bear, having smelled a person lying motionless (very often, when meeting a bear, people faint from fear), lost interest in him and left. But in this case, you must play the role to the end and not get up until the bear has gone a really serious distance from you. If you give yourself away in front of him, the consequences can be tragic.

And finally, if the bear still attacked you completely unarmed, fight back with all your might. Yell and act as inappropriately as possible. From the rush of adrenaline, you will not feel pain, and therefore "go crazy" to the fullest. Often this behavior scares off the bear, and he retreats.

I hope that you won’t get to hand-to-hand fights and you will prudently disperse with the bear, doing everything possible measures precautions.

Valery Fedorov

In the forests where bears live, the probability of meeting with the "owner of the forest" is quite high. Cases of bear attacks on humans are not uncommon. People for a wild beast are uninvited guests. And from these guests, he will protect his territory.

A meeting with a bear in the forest often ends in tragedy. The beast has strong paws, large claws and sharp teeth. If he gets angry, he can not only cripple a person, but also bully him.

Are bears dangerous?

This is a very dangerous forest predator. It is impossible to predict the outcome of a random meeting of a person with him. The fact is that the psyche of each animal is different. There are cowardly bears, and there are fearless ones, there are arrogant and aggressive ones, and there are quite calm ones. To the question: “Do bears attack people?”, The answer is yes. They attack. And it happens quite often.

The reasons for attacks on people are different. But still, it should be noted that attacks without any reason, without provocations on the part of a person, are quite likely. And it is unlikely that a person who sees the massive carcass of a predator is capable of provocations. God forbid, save yourself and stay alive.

There are many stories about the unpredictable behavior of animals when meeting a person. Therefore, when planning to visit places where a bear can meet in the forest, one must be prepared for the unexpected. You need to know exactly what to do if you meet a bear.

The main reasons for the attack of brown bears on people

The behavior of the clubfoot depends on the season, age and meeting place.

Knowing some of the nuances of the behavior of the beast, you can navigate the situation and figure out , how to protect yourself from a bear in the forest.

So, a connecting rod that came out of hibernation at the wrong time for any reason (accumulated little fat or someone disturbed it) is especially dangerous.
If you meet an animal near the place where the trophy is buried, then the clubfoot will see an opponent in you and will try to destroy it.
At the beginning of spring, when predators come out of hibernation, they look for food for themselves, therefore they are aggressive and dangerous.
Late spring is the time for bear weddings. During this period, males are most dangerous. In fights, they are cruel and attack everyone who meets on the way.
A meeting with a she-bear nurturing her children is also dangerous. From the side of any creature, she sees danger and is ready to fight for her children in mortal combat.

Less dangerous are the owners of forests in summer time: there is a lot of food, so predators do not seek to meet a person.

How to behave when meeting

With a sleeping or prey-eating beast

A sleeping animal should never be disturbed. You don't have to take pictures of it. Move away immediately! Most importantly, don't make noise. If he wakes up, then the bear attack may end sadly.

But what to do if you see a bear eating prey? Freeze and try to demonstrate that you do not need bear food. You should straighten up and start talking loudly (if you are alone, then say a monologue - whatever comes to mind). You can't show your back to the beast. It is better to retreat backwards, diagonally, without letting the predator out of sight. Move slowly and smoothly, without sudden movements.

The probability of an attack depends on the distance: the smaller it is, the more dangerous the situation.

With a group of animals

You can cross with several clubfoot at the same time in the following cases:

during the rut;
during the period when the she-bear raises cubs and takes care of them;
at a time when the young animals driven away by the mother are still moving together.

During the rut, the animals are very aggressive and fight to the death. Therefore, to catch the eye of such a team is deadly. During this period, both males and females are vicious.

Young individuals are less dangerous. They do not yet have experience of meeting people, so an attack is not ruled out. But it's much easier to scare them away.

With a teddy bear

A bear with a brood is dangerous when she thinks that trouble threatens her children. For cubs, she will tear anyone. You should never approach baby bear cubs in the forest. We must try to quickly and silently retire.

On the hunt

A hunter who moves in the habitats of predators puts his life in danger. After all, the beast can be encountered quite suddenly. If suddenly a bearish figure flashed on the horizon, try not to catch his eye. You will be lucky if you are on the leeward side, because the predator has a keen sense of smell. If the bear smells you, then make a loud clap with your hands, shoot into the air. You don't have to shoot the animal. Wounded, he is much more dangerous.

What to do if a bear is approaching?

When the beast approaches, you can not run away. The bear has an excellent sense of smell, but poor eyesight. A blind predator sees only a silhouette, so it comes close to examine the object. It happens that the animal begins to go around a person in order to stand upwind and smell the smell. It happens that, recognizing a person, he runs away.

You can try to drive away the clubfoot. If he is approaching or chasing while keeping a distance, then make noise. Tap with metal objects such as mugs or bowls. Use a rocket launcher, firecrackers, shoot into the air. There are special aerosols based on pepper, but they only work for a short distance in calm weather.

It should be noted that bears often do not plan to attack, they try to force a stranger to leave their territory.

You cannot attack an animal by throwing stones at it. Walk away calmly, backing away, slowly, without sudden movements.

What to do if a bear attacks?

In the event of an attack, you should try to concentrate on your behavior. Consider specifically what to do if a bear attacked.

In the absence of weapons, you need to figure out how to divert the attention of a predator. Place any bulky items (basket, bucket, backpack) in front of you.

If there is nothing, then you need to lie on your stomach or curl up in a baby's position. Clasp your hands over your head to protect it. You have to pretend to be dead. Having concentrated all your strength, you must endure if he starts sniffing you. Sometimes the beast throws the victim with dry leaves and branches. Wait patiently for him to leave. The main thing is not to move.

But if the beast starts to attack, then you should fight back. Try to get in the eyes. Use sharp objects aiming at the eye sockets. You can't give up, fighting is the only chance to survive.

You can use firearms in such a situation if its power is allowed to kill the beast, and you know exactly where to shoot the bear.

How to avoid meeting a bear in the forest?

Many people get lost and do not know what to do when they encounter a bear.

If you happen to get into the forests where bears live, then try to adhere to the following rules:

try to move in open places and where the forest is less common in order to see the beast in advance and try to avoid meeting or scare it away;
know that bears live in elfin cedars and willows;
do not follow the bear trails, and if you come across tracks, then change the route;
do not walk along the rivers where salmon is found, at night and before dawn - the time of bear fishing;
walk around the bear grounds in groups - this is less likely to be attacked by animals;
you can’t run away from the beast, its speed from a place reaches 40-60 km per hour. Back away slowly;
it is better to try to scare away curious animals that do not show aggression;
at close range, you don’t have to look closely into the eyes of the beast - he will regard this as the beginning of an attack;
at night, it is advisable to light a fire and keep the fire going until dawn - the beast will be scared away by a bright flame;
at night you don’t have to walk through the forest - you can stumble upon a bear by chance;
no need to feed forest bears. This is fraught with a loss of fear of people and the emergence of the habit of "begging" for tasty things from people. Those who do not give the animals a treat when they meet may suffer;
on halts it is necessary to remove the remnants of food and try not to spread the smell of food so as not to attract hungry animals.

Remember that when meeting with a predator or when attacked by a bear, only composure can save your life.

Video

Saved by a flare, which I usually keep ready when I walk through dense thickets in the floodplains of spawning rivers. The bear attacked me because he was protecting the meat of a bear cub he had just killed. This I found out later, but at that moment I preferred to retreat with a burning flare in my hands and give a tear. A little later, I found out that my chance to escape with the help of a flare was not one hundred percent, since the second flare that I had at that moment turned out to be inoperative. If it was he who was in my hands at the time of the attack of the beast, you would not be reading these lines, and the director of the Kronotsky Reserve would have a lot of trouble due to the death of another employee from the bear ...

I had to work for a long time in the most bearish places in Russia: in the Kamchatka Valley of Geysers, which is located in the Kronotsky Reserve and on Kuril Lake in the South Kamchatka Reserve. There were days on the Kuril Lake when it was possible to meet more than a hundred bears! Life shows that in this bearish kingdom 2-4 dangerous situations arise during the season when you have to fight off the animals. I want to talk about my experience of behavior in such situations today.

I want to say right away that the main art of living among bears is not in being able to fight them off, but in how not to bring things to a conflict. This is quite possible: the 2006 season went without a single skirmish for me. At the end of the post, I will provide a link to the recommendations of experts on how to avoid a conflict with a bear. But people of my profession (let me remind you that I am not only a photographer, but also work as an inspector for the protection of a protected area) have to be in the thick of things, controlling the regime of the reserve and protecting bears from people, and people from bears. We also have a lot of people: visiting researchers, photo and film crews, and other visitors to the reserve. Sooner or later, bad things happen...

In this picture, the distance between people and the beast is safe.

The first such situation happened to me in the first week of my work in the Valley of Geysers at the end of May 2005, at the height of the mating season for bears, when they go crazy from raging hormones. Together with my friend and colleague Vladimir Zlotnikov, we returned to the hut of their distant detour. the last part The path went up a steep slope, and we sat down to rest. There were only two hundred meters left to the house and, after smoking, Volodya casually put on a backpack over the gun: the house is nearby! For the same reason, I did not even begin to hang a gun over my shoulder, I decided to carry it in my hand. We began to get out on the last climb out of the canyon, when a bear jumped out from above because of a break in the hill and ran towards Volodya. He automatically grabbed the stock, but the gun was under the backpack and there was simply no time to remove the backpack. He shouted: "Shoot!!!", which I did. One barrel of my gun was loaded with a flare and the other with a bullet. I fired the rocket. It was difficult to miss because the bear was only four steps away from us. At such a short distance, the energy of the rocket strike was enough to knock the mighty beast off its feet, and it fell off a steep slope, rolled down ten meters and managed to stop only on the geyserite shield of the Schel Geyser. From surprise, a bear's illness happened to him: then tourists repeatedly asked about the origin of a huge pile of litter on the geyser. But after a minute he got over his excitement and began to graze on the young grass, as if nothing had happened. He learned the right lesson: he never approached people at a distance closer than thirty meters. Until he molted, the spot of wool burnt out from the rocket on his shoulder was clearly visible, for which he received the name Marked. Since then I've been counting 12 gauge flares effective tool scare away bears and have used them successfully more than once. They do not cause serious harm to the animal. In addition, you should shoot at the hull when absolutely necessary, sometimes it is enough to shoot at a stone or log nearby. The bear is afraid not only of the noise of the shot, but also of the sharp chemical smell of a burning rocket, fire, sparks and hiss. I had a case when the bear did not run away from the shots, but began to examine a rocket burning in the snow, touching it with the tips of its claws.

This is the subdued Bullseye a minute after the attack. dark spot on his shoulder is a mark from a flare.

Signal cartridges are dangerous to use in a dry forest - they easily ignite a flammable substrate.
Another proven tool is false flares. In Kamchatka, they are sold in hunting and fishing shops. It is better to buy flares not in a cardboard case (for 150 - 200 rubles), but in a plastic one, although they are more than twice as expensive (400 - 500 rubles). Under endless rains, the cardboard one will sooner or later become limp, and the plastic ones are reliably protected. Moreover, out of dozens of plastic flares that passed through my hands, not one failed, and with cardboard ones this happened a couple of times - thank God that not in critical situations. You need to have several flares, each one burns for about 2 minutes, and this time may not be enough to leave a dangerous place. Do not light a flare when the bear is far away and there is no real danger. Otherwise, you will find yourself without protection when the bear is very close. In addition, animals can get used to a burning flare and begin to ignore it even at close range.

The flare is the most accessible effective anti-bear tool. A man drives a bear away from a helicopter fuel tank. Bears love the smell of kerosene and bite through containers where it is located.

Sometimes animals are not even afraid of a helicopter. Moreover, there are cases in Kamchatka when bears climbed into a left open car.
A good remedy for bears are gas cylinders, but not those that we sell against people and dogs, but special, anti-bear ones. It is almost impossible to bring them to Russia by plane due to strict security rules. I have seen these cylinders in action more than once - with correct application bears shy away from them.
In fact, the entire previous conversation was about extreme situations and strong means. In ordinary life, collisions with people with bears are milder. Usually, whoever is smarter is the first to give way. Bears almost always do this. If the bear does try to get close, 90 percent of the time, a sharp whistle or an unexpected pop in the palm of the hand is enough to make the beast run away. If he continues to approach, the next remedy is to throw a pebble at him. As a rule, it works. Some of my colleagues claim that a good mate helps from a bear. I do not undertake to promote this method, especially since my colleague and friend Vasily Maksimov, who lives among bears on the Kuril Lake, forbids swearing at nursing bears, they say, this causes their milk to disappear.

Vasily Maksimov, who is a bit deaf, takes pictures of me with enthusiasm, not hearing how a bear is chopping in the shallow water behind him.

The greatest troubles have to be endured by young, actively exploring the world bears, as well as from mature dominant males who have no enemies in the wild and have forgotten how to give way.

A young curious bear came to explore the cordon of the South Kamchatka Reserve at the moment when there were tourists there.

In moments of real danger, something switches in a person’s head and animal fear disappears. At one time, unarmed, I had to rush at a poacher shooting at me - I remember well - there was no fear, but there was a super-mobilization of all physical and mental forces. The same feeling with the bear. I did not think that I would have to rush to the animals, but I had to. In August 2005, we were sitting with our son Petya and a group of French tourists on a steep slope above a stormy Pacific Ocean and watched the cubs at the hole. The cubs disappeared from sight, and, having handed over the gun to my son, I crawled to the second branch with a camera in a case to check if the cubs were playing there. As soon as I crawled away behind a break in the terrain and became invisible to the people who remained by the ocean, I noticed a bear with peripheral vision: it stood on its hind legs in a high reed and looked at me with great curiosity. I took out the Nikon, clicked a bear sticking out of the grass a couple of times. I didn’t like his eyes, they looked at me painfully carnivorously ... I intuitively felt that a very bad decision had already been made in the bear’s head ... Then I realized what a big mistake I had made: a person crawling on the ground for a bear is sick or wounded creature, easy prey, whose torment must be stopped. I immediately jumped up, put the camera in the trunk and shouted: "Petya! The gun! Come here with the gun!" But Petya with a gun did not appear from behind the hill, and I immediately understood why: my cries were drowned out by the roar of the stormy ocean! The bear disappeared into the grass and in a second looked out of it already very close, about ten meters away, and approached at a slight angle. In a split second, I decided to do something unexpected for the bear, to show him my superiority. And I had nothing to do but rush at him with a war cry and a trunk held high above my head, which I threw at him, but already hit back body: the bear began to run away from me. When half a minute later I returned to Petya and the French, I could only tell them in a whisper what had happened, because in the attacking cry I lost my voice for a long time. But "Nikon D2x" with a zoom of 80 - 400 mm remained operational after a strong blow!

“... residents of the region in the event of the appearance of bears in dangerous proximity can immediately contact the state inspectorate to send inspectors to the scene. It is their duty to determine the degree of danger of a predator, and if necessary, their duty is to "settle" the situation with a well-aimed shot.

(from an official speech)

The brown bear is the largest predator living in the Ural taiga. Its weight can exceed 600 kg. Powerful forelimbs, equipped with long claws, have great destructive power - with a paw strike, a bear is able to break a ridge, tear out ribs or break the skull bones of an elk. With its teeth, a bear can bite through the trunks of a smoothbore gun. With apparent massiveness, the bear is a very "agile" animal. In a jerk, it reaches a speed of 60 km / h, and from a standstill.

There is a lot of it in the subpolar Urals, especially along the banks of rivers. This is his country, his hunting territories and the owner here is he, not a man.

How to avoid a bear encounter

Make some noise

If you are traveling alone through the domain of a bear, and even more so along the river bank, where there is a lot of willow, let us know about you. Especially where the landscape or vegetation makes it difficult to see. Make noise, sing, talk loudly, or tie a bell to your backpack. If possible, travel with a group. Groups make more noise and are easier for bears to recognize. Avoid dense bushes. If you can't, then try to walk so that the wind blows from your back, and the bear can smell you. Contrary to popular belief, bears see almost as well as humans, but trust their noses more than their eyes or ears. Always let the bear know you are here.

Don't push the bears

Like people, bears use paths and roads. Don't pitch your tent near a path they can walk on. Go around those places where you smell dead fish, an animal, or see animals that feed on carrion. There may also be bear food, and if it is nearby, it can aggressively defend the hiding place (nick). As a rule, in such places a bear has a rookery - a rookery.

Give the bear as much free space as possible. Some bears are more tolerant than others, but each has its own "personal space" - the distance within which it feels threatened. If you are in this zone, the bear may react aggressively. When photographing animals, use telephoto lenses as you get closer to capture close-up, You may be in this danger zone.

Cleanliness is the key to health

Bears only have 7 months to accumulate fat before their long hibernation. Don't let them know that human food or garbage is easy prey. It is foolish and dangerous to feed bears, or to leave food or garbage to attract them.

Cook food away from your tent. Keep all groceries and food away from the camp. Hang food so that the bear cannot reach it. If there are no trees, store food in airtight or special containers. Remember that dogs and their food can also attract bears.

Keep the camp clean. Wash dishes. Don't use strong smelling foods like bacon or smoked fish. Don't let your clothes smell like food. Burn garbage at the stake, burn cans. Bears are equally attracted to food and trash, so handle them properly. Waste disposal is a waste of time. Bears have a keen sense of smell and are good at digging.

If a bear approaches you while fishing, stop fishing. If there is a fish on the line, do not let it splash. If this is not possible, cut the line. If the bear realizes that he can get the fish only by approaching the fisherman, he will return again. A bear can also mistake you for another bear - a stranger that hunts (fishes) in its territory and reacts very aggressively.

What to do when meeting a bear?

If you see a bear, try to get away from it. Give the bear every opportunity to avoid meeting you. If you encounter a bear, stay calm. Attacks are rare. There is a chance you are not in danger. Most bears (she-bears) are interested in protecting their food, cubs or their personal space. When the threat has passed, they will pass by.

Let me know

Let the bear know that you are a human. Talk to the bear in a normal voice. Wave your hands. Help the bear recognize you. If the bear cannot recognize who you are, it may come closer or stand on its hind legs to get a better look or sniff. A standing bear is usually curious and not dangerous. You can try to slowly back away diagonally, but if the bear starts to follow you, stop and stay where you are.

Don't run!

Do NOT RUN under any circumstances. You won't be able to run away from the bear. They have been found to run at about 60 km/h and, like dogs, they will chase a fleeing animal or person. This animal takes an animal running from it as a victim and easily kills in 90% of cases out of 100. Often bears intimidate, terrify, sometimes 3 meters from their enemy, without trying to attack. Keep waving your arms and talking to the bear. If the bear gets too close, raise your voice and become more aggressive. Knock on pots and pans. Never imitate a bear's growl or squawk.

If the bear attacks

If the bear starts to attack, give up! Fall to the ground and pretend to be dead. Lie on your stomach or curl up in a ball with your hands behind your head. It is typical for a bear to stop attacking if it feels that the threat has been eliminated. Stay still for as long as possible. If you move and the bear sees or hears you, it may return and renew its attack. In rare cases, an attacking bear may mistake a person for food.

Bear protection

Use weapons with caution as an alternative to a reasonable approach to resolving a potential conflict. You can shoot at a bear ONLY for the purpose of self-defense during an attack, unless you provoked it and if there is no other way out. In all other cases, a warning shot must be fired into the air to frighten the bear. If you are not a hunter, but a fisherman and you do not have a gun, take a traumatic pistol with flash-noise cartridges or a rocket launcher (“hunter's signal”) with you. They should always be at hand (on the belt in a belt holster, in the bosom, in a body holster). If there is no such thing, ordinary firecrackers are quite suitable. On no account leave the camp without a means of guaranteeing, if necessary, a shot or noise clap.

In ordinary life, collisions with people with bears are milder. Usually, whoever is smarter is the first to give way. Bears almost always do this. If the bear does try to get close, 90 percent of the time, a sharp whistle or an unexpected pop in the palm of the hand is enough to make the beast run away. If he continues to approach, the next remedy is to throw a pebble at him. As a rule, it works. Some hunters claim that it helps from a good bear mat.

Bears are afraid of the unexpected. For example, unexpectedly opening umbrellas, especially if two big eyes are drawn on them. An unexpectedly open floor of a raincoat or a backpack suddenly thrown up. Any unexpected behavior. The greatest troubles have to be endured from young bears actively exploring the world around them, as well as from mature dominant males who have no enemies in the wild and have forgotten how to give way.

When in bear areas, don't forget to look around sometimes! There is nothing worse than running into a beast suddenly - it may take it as an act of aggression. Some hunting stores sell a protective aerosol spray containing red pepper extract, which has been successfully used to protect against a bear . These sprays are effective at a distance of about 5-6 meters. If you carry a spray, keep it handy and know how to use it.

Bears can be fierce protectors of their cubs. Standing between a she-bear and her cubs is a big mistake. A mother bear can react violently to anything she considers a threat to her cub.

The bear's rutting period begins in June and ends in late July - early August. During this period, the animals are excited, often there are groups of adult animals. Demonstrative competitions and fights arise between males, as a result, the female remains with one male, while the others stay nearby. Males show high activity and aggressiveness, and the entire period of estrus is near the female.

Bear cubs appear in January-February. In the Urals, it is not uncommon to meet a female with three cubs.

The most likely places to encounter a bear

The daily activity of a bear is determined by the season of the year, the availability of food and the general life cycle of the animal. In spring and the first half of summer, bears can feed around the clock, especially in cloudy weather. The high daily activity of the bear persists until the start of the run of salmon and grayling. During the day, the bears lie down without going far from the feeding place, usually in thickets of shrubs, in closed glades, in small forest clumps, on hot days they can be located in the floodplain high grass or willow of the river.

During mass move salmon, daytime activity decreases and shifts to the evening, morning and night hours. With a lack of food (especially with a weak course of fish), the activity of bears increases, and they feed on berry fields, in cedar dwarf forests or in mountain meadows at almost any time of the day. For rest, the bear usually settles under the canopy coniferous trees, and beds can be used repeatedly. In the twilight and in the forest thicket, the bear feels much more confident than a person.

The bear is omnivorous. In the Urals in the spring, after leaving their dens, the animals come out onto the warm slopes of the mountains, warmed up and quickly freed from the snow cover, where they dig for rhizomes and bulbs. Later in May, they begin to go out to the rivers or to the berry fields, pick up carrion, eat the remains of berries. Animals often visit the coasts of rivers and lakes in search of animal and plant waste.

With the start of the fish to spawn, most of the bears are located near the spawning rivers. On the mountainous Ural rivers, fish is the main source of animal protein food. Having eaten on fish, the bears go to the berries or grass, in order to return to the river after some time. Thus, the menu diversifies, the diet becomes richer. In the autumn before the occurrence (October-November), the bears leave the rivers and gradually move, eating berries and nuts of the dwarf pines, go to the wintering grounds.

In their environment, bears are cannibals. A larger bear may catch and devour a cub (which most often happens during the mating season when the cubs are close to the bear). Cases of attacks and eating by bears of smaller (more often young) individuals have been registered.

Bear winter shelters are usually located in the ground or caves. Two or three animals can sleep in one lair. With an abundance of food, individuals of good fatness may not go to dens at all, arranging surface nests.

A person is not an object of food for a bear. Most bears under normal conditions try to avoid meeting a person, and, having found him first, they try to leave unnoticed. If the meeting happened, then the vast majority of bears take flight. However, you should always remember and clearly know that the behavior of a particular bear that you meet in a particular situation is UNPREDICTABLE!

Summing up

In order to avoid dangerous situations when meeting with a bear, the following rules can help you:

1. When moving along the route, hunting in the forest, picking mushrooms or berries, relaxing in picturesque taiga places, always remember that a meeting with a bear can happen at any time, in any place, and You must be mentally prepared for this.. Plan your possible actions in advance. Listen to the birds around you. Nutcrackers are especially talkative. By the behavior of birds, you can predict in advance the place and time of the appearance of the beast.

2 . To avoid the critical approach distance and not unexpectedly collide with a bear, it is necessary to move in the forest noisily talking freely and loudly, and preferably in a group of at least 3 people. Avoid close encounters with bears. Look out for signs of a bear that it is nearby and make as much noise as possible. Let's know about ourselves.

3 . To avoid the appearance of trained beggar bears, it is important to ensure that not to create conditions for their complementary feeding. Food scraps and carcasses of slaughtered wild animals must be disposed of so that predators do not take advantage of them.

4 . Do not leave in the forest in places of your rest and intermediate stops food leftovers, garbage. You can not arrange near the bases, camps, trails, on halts and routes such objects as garbage dumps, dumps, warehouses of food waste. Do not attract the bear through improper storage of food and garbage.

5 . When moving through the taiga and river banks, the maximum try to avoid areas of high grass, willow trees, thickets of elfin cedar, closed cozy glades, thickets of "burdocks" in the floodplains of rivers and streams, places of possible rest for a bear on day trips. Move to open areas where you can see the bear far enough away.

6 . Seeing a bear in the distance don't get close to him, carefully leave this place, bypass it. Keep calm.

7 . Post camp in the open, with sufficient field visibility. Carefully monitor the cleanliness of their territories, burn all food waste. Do not store food in accessible places, isolate them so that smells cannot attract animals.

8 . In no case do not stay overnight, do not put up tents and do not set up camp on bear and other forest trails.

9 . Avoid walking along river banks and streams during the spawning season of salmon in the evening and morning twilight and at night. At all avoid walking in the taiga dull twilight and night. Remember, night is Bear time! If fate forced you to walk at night, you need to at least move around with an electric flashlight on.

10 . Under no circumstances don't come near in places where bears may be found the remains of dead animals, masses of abandoned fish, other possible baits. A bear disturbed on prey in most cases goes on the attack.

11 . Don't push the bear Please respect his "private space". In case of an unexpected meeting "short", even if you are unarmed, categorically it is impossible to run away from the beast(this is useless and can only additionally provoke the bear to pursue). It is necessary, trying to keep calm as much as possible, to remain in place (no matter how scary it is), calling for help with a loud cry, or, slowly backing away, retreat. In this case, you can try to scare away the bear with the ringing of metal objects, a loud cry, voice, shots in the air, rockets, hand flares.

13 . Never, do not, under any circumstances, approach bear cubs no matter how sweet and cute they seem to you. Do not try to feed or lure them. If you meet them by chance, or they come out to your resting place, stop immediately, look around quickly and look for an escape route as quickly as possible. Bear cubs are curious and if they are heading towards you, drive them away with loud cries. Remember - somewhere near the she-bear, and GOD FORBID You will find yourself between a she-bear and a bear cub. A bear attack, if she thinks that you are a threat to her baby, will be the last thing you will see in your life.

14 . Protect you, your camp only strong, brave and vicious dogs can. Even among the huskies, not everyone is able to attack a bear. Under no circumstances should dogs be used to guard against a bear without the skills, dexterity and strength to at least briefly detain a bear on the spot.

15 . Scaring away the bear with shots, don't try to shoot the beast itself. A wounded bear is extremely dangerous! Even if he leaves you, he can become a serious danger to other people. You can only kill a bear with a large-caliber weapon, and even a shot "on the spot" can not always stop it immediately. Reliable shot exactly in the brain or spine.

16 . In extreme cases, you can escape from a bear on a tree if you manage to get on it. An adult large bear, due to its weight, will no longer be able to climb on it. Such cases of rescue, or rather sitting out, on trees are known. If there are several trees, try to choose the largest one.

17 . Being in the taiga always be very careful, do not go into thickets of elfin, tall grass. Do not climb in floodplain thickets of bushes. Settling down to rest, carefully look around for signs of the presence of a bear. On clay outcrops, swamps, banks of streams, you can see traces of a bear, and in floodplain places, feeding places (kopanki), where he dug marsh plants. If you suspect that a bear has been here, leave the area immediately and look elsewhere.

18 . Even if the bear nevertheless went to you, there is still hope that he will turn aside. Never DO NOT turn your back on an attacking bear! The man who escaped is almost certainly doomed. When attacked by a bear, you cannot manifest external signs fear. If there is no reliable shelter or shelter nearby, it is necessary to face the danger by standing face to face. There are more people who survived the attack of the bear in this way than those who were able to flee. Don't run.

19 . Seeing bears accidentally on the trail, never, never feed them no matter how harmless and cute they seem. The bear does not need your feeding, but, having started to feed the bear, you bring up a beggar in him, who will very quickly begin to demand food, and if he does not receive it, he becomes aggressive and is able to attack a person, the fear of which he loses. Remember that by your actions you endanger the lives of others.

20 . Upon detection of a bear showing aggression, a wounded bear, a bear caught in a samolov (loop), a bear attacking dogs and people, other people should be warned immediately located in the same place or in close proximity to it.

21 . And last - ANYTIME AND ANYWHERE: Having met a bear, regardless of its size, behavior and appearance treat him like a formidable and powerful predator with unpredictable behavior.

Studies conducted in our country and abroad have shown that there is no single universal means of protection against bears, and the above recommendations cannot be considered as an absolute guarantee against an accident, but they will help reduce the likelihood of a conflict situation.

Svitov Evgeniy