In a previous podcast and article, Salty and I talked about what animals actually are dangerous to preppers, and under what circumstances. In this one, we talk about the most important steps anyone can take to reduce their likelihood of having problems with a wild (or feral) animal:
We’ve used the book Night of the Grizzlies as an organizing principle, because it beautifully illustrates our two main points. This book tells the true story of a night in Glacier National Park, when in two separate events two separate grizzlies each killed a park visitor. Our enthusiasm for these approaches doesn’t come just from this book though; it comes from lots of our past experience (some of mine as a graduate student and professional in biology) and some from other reading, such as Death in Yellowstone.
Wild, dangerous animals should not be encouraged to get comfortable around people
Glacier National Park had had zero deaths due to bears up until that night in 1967 when two hikers were killed. The belief at the time was that to be safe from bears, the big thing was not to surprise them. Given a chance, it was expected the bears would always leave when they heard people coming. The approach of making plenty of noise was a good one, and still works with most bears today.
The problem they ran into was with one strange bear that lost this fear. It was afraid of cars (so would flee when the rangers drove up to try and shoot it), but not people. It had been known to not only approach houses where people were out in the yard, but to slam into the back door in an attempt to follow them in.
One of the people who lived in the house reported a lasting regret that he hadn’t ‘gotten around to’ shooting that animal earlier, as he meant to. While the rangers wouldn’t say so out loud (government employees after all), I don’t doubt the rangers who tried to shoot it regretted not trying harder too.
Similarly, nearly all of the bear attacks reported at Yellowstone have been from bears that were used to people. I took the picture below at Yellowstone just two weeks ago… from the window of a car as we finally got past an hour long traffic jam because so many jerks had stopped in the middle of the road to take pics (My pic is not that good because we kept moving and I just got the one attempt.) Those bears clearly had none of the normal animal concern about being close to people, noise, flashes, etc.
Habituated bears have lost one of the major barriers to attacking people: Being afraid of them.
How to keep the wild animal wild
Prepper approach: Give any potentially dangerous animal a wide berth, and do what you can to drive them off whenever they come near human-travelled spaces. Loud and surprising noises and sudden bright lights work well with small critters; I bet they’d work well with dangerous animals too. Just don’t be within reach of the animal when it gets scared!
Don’t feed a wild animal!
The second story from the Night of the Grizzlies was, if anything, more idiotic. The park had a (highly reasonable) policy of not putting out food scraps where bears could get to them. Too bad it was a widely ignored rule. One chalet up on a mountaintop, for example, had too small of an incinerator to burn all the scraps the guests produced.
The rangers just dumped the trash a few dozen feet from the cabin instead. Guests would hike up to that particular chalet specifically for the Bear Show. Two males would habitually come and fight over the scraps right at dusk, and guests would gather on the porch and lawn to watch and take pictures. Later at night (judging by the sign) a sow and her two cubs would come too. Every animal used the same paths as the hikers and campers used.
It was all fun and games until one night the sow went to the campground, ripped open one of the tents, dragged a girl off and ate her.
It’s a common theme. (One of the bear fatalities in Yellowstone in the 1800s actually slept with his stock of bacon as his pillow…so animals wouldn’t get at it.) It is also a very, very bad idea. An animal can learn, and teaching them humans are a source of food is an invitation to disaster.
How to avoid feeding
Prepper approach: Keep this in mind when on the road, but especially around where you live if the trash removal becomes undependable. Feral dogs, coyotes, and pest animals are your most likely raiders, but even bigger and more dangerous scavengers are certainly potential problems. It’s not just you either; it might be your neighbors that are feeding the scavengers.
When garbage is just left out, it won’t be just birds that come to feed.*
We didn’t have city trash removal when I was a kid, so we had a burn barrel where all food residues got crisped, with anything that wouldn’t burn away moved to a dump area later. That solution still works. Burying works too, but bury it deep. You might also consider the rules for hiking in bear country, where everything smelling even remotely tasty is kept away from the sleeping area, and preferably suspended at least ten feet up and four feet away from any sturdy tree trunk.
If an animal could kill you, treat it with respect.
Sounds obvious, no? But it needs to be said, because it’s human nature to become complacent when nothing bad has ever happened (yet). For example, here’s another pic from my Yellowstone visit:
How cute! Let’s get out of the car to get closer to the cub and take a picture! What could possibly go wrong?
Those people just see cute animal baby and don’t stop to consider…where’s Momma? Black bears aren’t very aggressive, but threatening cubs is the best known way to provoke an attack. Surprising one so it doesn’t feel it can safely flee is another. This is why hikers are advised to make noise when hiking and play dead if attacked.
Playing dead with a hungry bear just makes you easier to eat. Playing dead often works because the bear attacked out of fear, for themselves or their cubs. Bears seem to believe the best defense is a good offense.
Tips for avoiding stupid
With packs, it’s important to not let them surround you if possible. I’ve had one mean little SOB dog dart in and bite the back of my leg while I faced down the others. Another time I got by tooth-free by keeping circling, whacking whoever tried to approach with my bicycle. The attack always came from whoever was behind me at the time.
Prepper approach: Announce yourself when you might come across a predatory animal unaware. The chance that it wants to hunt you is far less than the chance that it would attack if surprised, based on historical evidence. Never forget to wonder where Momma or the rest of the pack is; it’s the ones you don’t see that are most dangerous.
Bear spray is a nice deterrent against dogs (or coyotes) as well as bears, by the way. Just pay attention to local laws. Some places treat it as a weapon that requires a permit; others consider bear spray aggravated assault because it’s more potent than the pepper spray meant to deter humans.
Do I think man-eating animals are a big risk to preppers? Nope. But they do pose a risk to life and well-being that can be reduced with some very simple steps, so why not do so?
* Thanks for the image to A. J. T. Johnsingh, WWF-India and NCF
Very well written with a number of great tips but there’s one thing you haven’t addressed, use of force.
You mention using bear spray, which is fine except for two things. 1st, bear spray is effected by wind. This means at the moment of truth you could find yourself blind because of a wind change. Second it has been shown that bears like the pepper in bear spray. While they will go away for a short time odds are they will return because they like the taste. Remember when it comes right down to it, the pepper in bear spray is a seasoning.
Dealing with a large animal is not like dealing with an individual, once they become fixated, they will just keep coming even when bear spray is used. If you find yourself in a situation where you need to use a firearm to protect yourself, the first thing to remember is that with a big animal, unless you win the lottery and manage to place a bullet where the spine gets severed, there is no such thing as an instant stop. What this means is for you to be ready with fast follow up shots.
When you shoot a large predator your object is one of two things, to break the animal’s shoulder and hobble it, or preferably, a heart/lung shot. Depending upon the angle you will aim for just below the shoulders or just under the chin if it’s coming right at you. Regardless, when you shoot an animal don’t leave it to suffer. If it runs away wounded, track it and put it down.
As for firearms, when I hunt it’s with a scout in .308/7.62. It will drop any dangerous animal in North America with the correct bullet type and placement. For those who have an AR platform in .223/5.56 and will be bugging out to a location where there are serious dangerous animals, you may want to consider upgrading to a bigger gun. If you tangle with a big grizzly bear and shoot him with a .223/5.56, unless you are very lucky, all you will do is piss him off and you will have to shoot again and again and again etc… Meanwhile, the big bruin is getting closer and closer and closer…
Here is a link that will give you more information on this:
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=hunting.firearms
Well, you’re quite right…to be honest I thought most prepper’s wouldn’t need help with the notion of ‘shoot it’ being an option … and while I shoot a fair bit, I’ve never hunted big game so you’ve covered the specifics better than I could.
I am not fond of the ‘Shoot it’ option as the first line plan, though. Bears don’t tend to hang out in open areas and charge long distance, so the main advantages of a rifle are lost… and as you point out, shooting it without killing it is Not Good. I suspect most people would come off better if they tried to avoid the need for deadly force unless it was the prepper intentionally doing the hunting and arranging the encounter to his advantage.
While I do carry bear spray in bear country, overall I think canine attacks much more likely in most of America. Bear spray tends to work very well on dogs … or so I hear, and it makes sense. Packs like to circle in and jockey for position before they commit, and during that time they can often be discouraged.
One dangerous animal not mentioned is moose. People often identify moose with deer who generally run from you. A moose is not just a big deer and will charge with little provocation, especially if its baby is near. Here in Idaho we see a lot more moose than bear. Good article.
Good point. I’d meant to mention them even, but they slip out of my Missouri mind once I’m no longer in their territory.
Regardless of whatever you are carrying for defense, one thing to always keep in mind, when you step off the pavement you become part of the food chain. That’s why situational awareness is so vital in wild country. Like you wrote, a bear can be on you quickly, so that’s why you need to be on the lookout for signs.