. Bears come into our town every year, you can hear bangers going off every night, and they learn to view them as harmless.
And in fact, noise doesn’t always work, even with wilderness bears. I first bought my rifle in 1980, as people whose opinion I trusted said they would never backpack into British Columbia’s Southern Chilcotin Mountains in the spring without a gun because of so many bears just getting up. Indeed, Kathleen and I had always seen them on our spring trips. So, there we were in our usual first-night camp, which we had previously named Bruin Meadow, cooking breakfast, trusty new .308 close at hand. Moments later a black bear wandered into our small meadow. Kathleen climbed a tree, while I picked up the rifle. Bear ambled out the back of the meadow. This happened two more times. Up and down the tree went Kathleen. Then a fourth black bear entered the meadow. Kathleen went up the tree a fourth time. Mere moments later, a Grizzly joined our breakfast gathering.
”Kathleen, now there’s two bears in the meadow!”
”Why don’t you fire a warning shot?”
I didn’t really like that idea. I had one cartridge in the chamber, and four in the magazine. If both bears resented the noise, and charged, I would have only four rounds to deal with two bears. And, besides, I’m not a hunter. No guarantee at all that I could win the battle. Anyway, I fired the warning shot. Black bear bolted out of the back of the meadow. Grizzly got up on its hind legs and stared directly at me, sniffing the air. I could read the look in his eyes.
”I’m headed this way. Out of the back of the meadow. But if you do that one more time, I’m gonna come over their and rip your sorry butt to little tiny shreds.”
Bear expert Stephen Herrero advises to avoid threatening a grizzly with loud noises. If the Grizzly believes that it has no escape route, then it is likely that one of you is going to die.