Bear safety information is more riddled with opinions and ego than twitter. Guns vs spray, brown bears vs black bears, run vs play dead, climb a tree vs run down hill. Let the science of bear safety clarify things for you. Kim Titchener has nearly 2 decades of working with bears doing research, education, and even babysitting the big furry animals. She lays the groundwork and dispels the myths you have been hearing your entire life. Clarity is found here. This is not your fathers bear safety tips.
Photo credit to Rita Taylor
Episode highlight
In this episode, Kim Titchener shares her life-saving knowledge on how to prevent and survive bear attacks.
Resources
Black Bear Attack Associations and Agency Risk Management
Sponsors
Giveaway
Enter YourForest10 at checkout at the Damaged Timber store for a 10% discount!
Quotes
9.59 - 10.05: “It shocks me… the grace at which these animals let us continue to live with them.”
18.02 - 18.07: “I always want to be open to new learning, new opportunities to have a different perspective on an animal.”
Takeaways
Finding her bearings (05.13)
Kim’s father was a biologist and science teacher, and she grew up with love and wonder for nature, looking to him for answers to her questions about the natural world. She enjoyed the outdoors near Toronto with her family as a child and moved to Banff National Park in her late teens, where she discovered what co-existing with the wild looked like. At university, she “fell in love with the concept of conservation”.
Bear babysitting (07.05)
In an effort to be involved in conservation, Kim wrote many emphatic letters to park societies and Parks Canada, and one of them led to her being hired as a summer wildlife interpreter. Her job was to monitor bear activity in the park and speak to visitors about bears. However, the day-to-day involved driving to campsites where bears were sighted and trying to rush them out of there. In spending time with bears, she realized that people weren’t coexisting well with them.
Bear conservation in mind (10.14)
Even though Kim saw difficult things happen to the bears due to human error, she did not lose hope and decided to dedicate herself to this field. After graduation, she worked in environmental management and education. After a bear killed a woman in Canmore, Kim was invited to be a part of a coalition of government agencies to manage wildlife and people better. Her passion for conservation helped her past the difficulties in doing this work.
Bear safety and more (12.41)
Kim eventually worked with Wildsmart to help communities manage wildlife interactions, provide them with resources and create educational programs for recreationists. She then moved on to running a consultancy in 2014, helping industries create courses on safety with black, grizzly and polar bears. Her work allows her to meet many different people and travel to beautiful places. However, she has to prove her expertise as a woman, using science and experience.
Things Kim can’t bear (17.22)
In her 18 years of experience, Kim has heard many myths and has worked to dispel them using the right information, which changes over time as the knowledge of bear-species increases, and new technology to study them becomes available. She laments that people still think they can outrun a bear or climb a tree to escape. She points out that guns cannot be loaded and shot precisely as bear sprays can.
Bearing the brunt (21.32)
Kim acknowledges that most of the information available to the public is to develop a species-based response to bears. However, many agencies like Parks Canada are changing to a behaviour-based approach to respond to defensive and non-defensive bears differently, regardless of species. The media blames bears for any mishap, but Kim highlights that most of the time, it is the people’s fault, and she believes the media needs to be mindful of its narrative.
Bear necessities (31.15)
Kim starts her talks with how to avoid bear encounters in the first place. Most of the time, carnivores don’t view humans as food. However, it is important to notify them that you are close by through your voice - singing or shouting as you go through the wild - so they don’t mistake your steps for that of prey. She advises staying away from places where nature can mask your sound, and avoiding clearings or areas with bear tracks and animal carcasses.
Bearing witness (34.23)
Kim recommends always having a bear spray on your person so you can grab it quickly in an encounter. Stay in large groups because that will keep your noise level high and also intimidate a bear if you run into one. Don’t leave children unsupervised and always keep your dogs on a leash. Avoid being outdoors at dusk and dawn, and never approach a bear! Since 1955, about 50% of attacks by large carnivores have been due to humans’ risk-enhancing behaviours.
Every season is bear season (40.53)
Kim’s course teaches about bears’ seasonal behaviours and what they feed on at different times of the year, so you can be mindful of those plants. The spring means rushing streams of melting snow, which can mask your sound, increasing the likelihood of surprise encounters with a bear. During such times, she suggests going higher up in the mountains where the line of sight is better.
Defensive bears (42.21)
A behaviour-based approach to bear safety teaches how to differentiate between a defensive and a predatory bear. If you run into a bear with cubs or a carcass or if you surprise a bear at close range, they become defensive, wanting to protect their young, their food, or themselves. Signs of a defensive bear are huffing, jaw popping, paw pounding, foaming around the mouth, and drooling. The best response is to be submissive, backing away slowly to reduce their fear.
Bear down (48.41)
If a defensive bear is not appeased by your backing away and charges toward you, use your bear spray. If you do not have any or can’t spray it in time, drop to the ground and play dead, Kim says. Research has shown that even with aggressive black bears, those who played dead had less severe injuries than those who fought back. Research is less conclusive on fatal attacks due to lack of information, but a majority of those are predatory attacks.
Bare your teeth! (52.50)
Kim warns against playing dead in a predatory attack! Instead, use bear spray and fight back. Hit the bear with rocks or branches in their eyes or nose, since their olfactory nervous system is 20 times the size of a human’s and can cause them great pain. The idea is to present yourself as not easy prey. Bears can be predatory because of a lack of food or if you look like their usual prey. In the last 15 years, 95% of bear attacks have been defensive, and 5% predatory.
Not your average bear (57.38)
Predatory bears show different signs than defensive bears - they will approach you in any pattern - directly, zig-zag or appear next to you. They may pull their ears back sometimes. Kim alerts listeners against running since bears can knock you from behind and break your neck. Do not back away either, since that will make the bear think you are easy prey. As scary as it is to stand your ground, make yourself bigger and scarier than the bear and learn to use bear spray.
No use bearing arms (1.06.18)
Depending on where you meet your bear, certain noisemakers won’t work if the bears have become accustomed to those. Kim also finds bear bangers dangerous because they can further aggravate a defensive bear or go off behind them, causing them to charge toward you. Research shows that many gun encounters have led to the loss of human lives and not staved off the bear. Bear spray is more accessible, more effective, safer and easier to use than guns.
Bear spray for the win! (1.14.27)
Bear spray ensures that humans have control over a bear encounter along with letting both the human and bear stay survive. Bear spray inflames the mucous membranes in the eyes, nose, mouth, lungs and skin, causing involuntary eye closure, making the bear cough, gag and have difficulty in breathing. When sprayed, a bear may turn and run, drop to the ground trying to rub their eyes, or back away and charge again. You can spray them again in that case.
Baring her soul (1.17.14)
Even though Kim has fought off a predatory grizzly bear, her scariest bear encounter was when she was with her family and her leashed dog leapt at a grizzly bear with two cubs. Had her family not had bear spray, or not been walking closely together, or had her dog not been leashed, things could have gone awry. Kim urges, “You’ve got to think about the people you’re with. Don’t you want them to be safe? Do the right thing.”
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