Bear attacks runner in Calgary

Doodlebug wrote:

Before you all start claiming you'd rather encounter a bear than a mountain lion, maybe you should look at the statistics. There have been over a hundred fatal bear attacks North America in the last hundred years (About half by black bears and half by brown bears). In that same time period, there have been about 20 fatal mountain lion attacks (almost all of them on children).A full grown brown bears can weigh almost eight to ten times as much as a mountain lion.

I think bear sightings & bear attacks are a lot more common because there are 10x as many bears as mountain lions (at least here in southern California). But in an encounter, I still think you would be better off vs. a bear.

I run in that area all the time and have never even seen a bear!

Depends on how far away the tree is.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2060959&page=0

A few weeks ago this challenge was brought up by some local radio guys. Which would you take? In a six foot deep pool the size of a regulation tennis court, a grizzly bear or a great white shark?

In rural areas you should have nothing to fear. Where I lived (rural New Mexico) bears & mountain lions were heavily hunted & would be chased by hunting dogs & tracked by hunters all day & night. At the very scent of a human or dog they'd run scared for miles. Most rural areas are this way.

I'd be a little more concerned in areas just outside of urban areas.

If being attacked, if there is a tree you can quickly climb, do so. A black bear can easliy climb trees, but you hopefully can keep it at bay by kicking at it as it come up after you. It needs its claws to climb and hang on, so by being careful a quick kick to the head might cause it to back down.

I know someone who actually did this. But she got up in the tree well before the bear came up after her. Rather than kicking (risky) she broke off a dead branch and poked it at the bear's head as he came up. The bear retreated.

I think brown bears don't climb or are are poorer climbers, but I'm not certain. Anyone know?

Prior posters are right that most bears will flee you. They might attack if you surprise them, especially if they have cubs. But if you are being stalked by a bear (usually a brown/Grizzly) watch out. First if you have any food on you that the bear might smell, discard it immediately. If the bear continues to follow you, be prepared for an attack. If brown bears don't climb well, then seek out a large tree that you can climb. Like my friend, break off a branch to use to defend yourself if the bear tries to come up.

I always pack a aerosol container of bear spray when hiking. Only weight 8 ounces, but some day I might be glad that I carried it with me all those years.

Those puck fags up north can't handle shit. Let's annex Canada now and teach them aboriginals to shoot and have guns rifles and shotguns like Americans do. Also fix the speech impediments they all seem to have from eating deer dung all the time.

Annex Canada NOW ! wrote:

Those puck fags up north can't handle shit. Let's annex Canada now and teach them aboriginals to shoot and have guns rifles and shotguns like Americans do. Also fix the speech impediments they all seem to have from eating deer dung all the time.

We should turn the whole place into an oil field. That will fix all our problems. Do they even have a military? Let's go kick the shit out of them and take over. It will also get everyone's minds off Iraq.

I was running with five friends in the Highlands near Squamish BC.

A loose straggly group stretched out over 50 meters or so of trail. The leader saw a small black bear just off the trail.

He stopped and we all watched it wonder off.

When we started running again after about 20 seconds or so of bear watching we were running in tight formation.

Safety in numbers I guess.

Hahahahahaha!

Have Canadians contributed anything to society? I mean really; have they invented anything or done anything great for the world? The more I think about it the more it pisses me off that they have all that space up there and those f u c king eskimos haven't done crap.

I agree we should turn their country into an oil field. We should also ship all of our illegal immigrants up there since we're running out of room for them down here.

Adult Grizz don't climb- claws are too long.If you are stalked by a bear, it is likely a black, and is extremely dangerous in this (rare) mode.

Take on the shark no problem but the pool would have to have no water in.

think fast wrote:

Adult Grizz don't climb- claws are too long.

If you are stalked by a bear, it is likely a black, and is extremely dangerous in this (rare) mode.

Yeah, I was going to say. I don't know why the other guy said that a bear that is stalking you would likely be a grizzly, that's black bear behavior there. I've been stalked twice that I know of while running, they just need to be convinced that you're not worth the trouble.

I'd just break it and use it to attack other runners

Ok, this other time I was chased by a grizzly bear but I really had to pee. So I peed on this here bear and that dang bear plum retreated. No lie

By the way, I'm straight canadian--thats why I talk with this lil' bit of a canadian accent.

The bear repellant is the best defense. Climbing tree sounds like a good alternate.

And yes, as I recall from other posts- black bears have shorter, curved claws used for climbing. They are also good at mangling you if they get a hold, and why you should fight back for your life if they do manage to get a hold of you. The browns have straighter claws, and if you curl up into a ball, are more likely to leave you with less damage should worst come to worst.

But the can of spray should be a priority.

So many topics so little time...

Obviously this is right wing, imperialistic dogma spouted by some angst ridden teen. Now that being said I was surprised to learn that over 80% of Canada's population lies within 60 miles of the US border. Not that I'm a proponent of invading Canada or anything but think of all the gas we'd save if we did. I'm just saying...

Definitely, mountain lions are much more dangerous than bears and I believe the attacks on humans, while small in relation to the last 100 years, are rising as their populations do. I’m not saying we should trim mountain lion populations but just think how easy our war with Canada would be if we rounded them all up and let them run loose in Alberta…

No doubt I would pick the shark. Bears, while not fast in the water, are quite nimble and it would be hard to avoid them in a tennis court sized pool. Assuming I could push off the walls, ala Michael Phelps, I’m sure I could outmaneuver a shark and get to his gills. Maybe when Canada becomes the 51st State we could ignore all those petty animal rights type things and have bear vs shark contests in tennis pools scattered throughout the new State…