myumyumyu

Alaska has a population density of 1.26/square mile. In other words, there is a lot of nature here. We've all been really interested in encountering some of the local wildlife, like moose and bears. Yesterday, we went to a "Bear Aware" class at REI.

They gave some stats about the bear population in the area, and I was actually surprised at how low the numbers were--just a couple hundred black bears and less than a hundred grizzlies in the Anchorage municipal area. The front page of the Anchorage Daily News seems to feature bear encounters far more frequently than I would guess based on the numbers, but I guess many of them are not in residential areas.

The rest of the lecture was spent on how to deal with a bear encounter, and I often didn't know whether to laugh or not. Having never encountered a wild bear in real life, I secretly (or not so secretly) would love to get a chance to see one. At the same time, it probably wouldn't be that awesome if it tried to attack me. The footage in the video of people making noise to alert bears of their presence ("Hey bear"), playing dead in the presence of a bear, or pulling out their bear spray when the bear got too close made me laugh. But then we'd see something from a first person perspective and realize that it's probably pretty terrifying.

Lessons from the class:

• Grizzlies are bigger and have a hump on their shoulders that distinguishes them from black bears. The hump is a result of powerful muscles.
• Grizzlies evolved in open territories, so they are more likely to attack than black bears, which evolved in forested areas and will instead run to climb a tree when they are scared.
• Sows are very defensive of their cubs, since they are used to protecting them from male bears that pose a threat. Never get between a mama bear and its baby bear.
• Defensive vs. predatory attacks: don't play dead if it clearly sees you as prey!
• Color is not a distinguishing factor for bears--both grizzlies and black bears can be black, brown, tan, blond, etc.
• Bears can smell a mile away. If you can see a bear, it has probably already detected you.
• Bear spray goes 30 feet, and a small can will last you 7 seconds! That's actually a really far distance and very long time, if you think about it.