Two Ways to Shoo Away a Bear

Where: 3 miles outside of E.Glacier Park, MT, this Nov.

What: 3-4 year old bear breaks into vehicles, campers etc. regularly for about a month

More what: got stuck in our 4 Runner when the wind closed the door shut

More what: destroyed the inside of the 4 Runner trying to get out

Who: son drove the Rav up to the 4 Runner, rolled down his window and opened the door to the 4 Runner

Result: bear got out the door and ran off, only to break into another vehicle on the next property

More results: Progress Insurance totaled the 2002 4 Runner due to the expense of repairing the inside not being financially worth it for them

More: this same bear was doing this for about a month. Tried to get the Blackfeet Tribal bear folks to deal with it but there were jurisdiction issues as the sets of properties involved border the reservation- some just inside the border; some just out. By the time we got some cooperation from the authorities, it snowed heavily and the bear disappeared.

This bear would take large bags of dog food out of someone's pick up as this person was unloading groceries etc. coming back from a Costco trip....a few times! This bear also did not react to being scared away by humans or dogs. He'll probably return in the spring and be captured and removed. I was told that snce it's so expensive to relocate bears, it'll probably be killed.

In both cases, the bear was in someone else's territory and the person was in a physically higher location looking down on the bear.  That seems to matter to the bear.  If they had met in the woods at ground level, it could have been a different response.  Plus in both cases, the bear was expecting someone to challenge him.  He wasn't surprised.  Bears don't like surprises.  That's why they tell you to make a lot of noise when walking thru the woods.  You don't want to surprise a bear.....

Voice of authority and force. Voice of curiosity and calm.  Interesting and profound message here. And great tools for consideration when meeting a bear on the path.