Avoid Black and Brown Grizzly bears. They will kill or seriously injure you. Do not go into the hills alone. Make bears aware of your presence on trails by making loud noises. It is recommended whilst hiking to wear bear bells, keep talk loudly and carry bear spray.

Give the bears a chance to know that you are approaching so you do not stumble across them. All bears are dangerous, and the grizzly is especially aggressive and unpredictable. An adult male weighs 300 to 700 pounds and measures 3.5 feet in height at the shoulder.

Females are smaller, but still weight from 200 to 400 pounds. You may be doing serious harm if you try to feed bears to enable you to take a few photographs. Each year bears have to be killed because of aggression towards humans. If they lose their fear of humans due to easy access to food, they become even more dangerous.

When a bear becomes aggressive park rangers, or Game and Fish personal outside the park will often try to relocate the bear first. These bears often return, and if relocation does not work, the bear has to be destroyed. If you love seeing the bears leave them alone and keep your distance.

What should you do if you encounter a bear? Do not run. Bears can run over 30 miles per hour, or 44 feet per second. That is much faster than Olympic sprinters. Running may encourage an attack from otherwise non-aggressive bears. If the bear is unaware of you, detour away from the bear. If the bear is aware of you and nearby, but has not acted aggressively, slowly back away.

Tree climbing to avoid bears is popular advice but not very practical in many circumstances. All black bears, all grizzly cubs, and some adult grizzlies can climb trees after you where you will be a sitting target. Running to a tree may provoke an otherwise uncertain bear to chase you. Use your bear spray if attacked. Check that the spray can date of expiry has not passed. You want the pepper spray as strong as you can get it. The chemicals grow weaker with time. If you do carry bear spray you should make sure you know how to use it. For example spraying against the wind would be a bad idea.

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