Karpel Tunnel wrote:Serendipper wrote:Run from a bear and you're guaranteed to die. Stand and fight and you might live.
And standing tall and looking ready to fight is the best strategy at certain distances. You might not even have to fight. And you're right of course that the last thing you want to do is trigger predator chase instincts. A lot of big predators are not used to us as food but when we run, it screams ' catch me, kill me, eat me.' The last two not necessarily in that order.
I see that behavior all the time with cats: if one cat is irrationally scared of another and runs, it will cause the other cat to chase it because they are hardwired to pursue anything that runs, so the act of running reinforces the fear that wasn't even justified in the first place since it elicits a reaction that wouldn't have occurred if not for the running.
About 5 years ago I was supposed to be camping with my buddy, but he didn't show, so I was on a mountain all by myself for the weekend. I did a lot of riding around on the atv and consequently saw a lot of bears. I'd blast around a curve just in time to catch a bear nose-diving off a cliff like superman and that routine was quite entertaining for while, but eventually I become bored and decided I'd see how far up the mountain I could get. Finally I was pinned between some rocks where my efforts to escape using the winch killed the battery which stranded me on top of a mountain in bear territory with no gun or any sort of weapon and facing a 2-hour walk back to camp to retrieve a new battery.
So I'm walking along reviewing the data I gathered during my day of riding about how the bears would jump off a cliff when presented with something that they didn't understand at speed sufficient to surprise the bear, so I picked up a rock and a stick and my plan was that if I saw a bear, I'd immediately charge at it as fast as I could, like a wild idiot, while throwing the rock and waving the stick. Hopefully the bear would run before it thought, because if I gave it time to think, it would inevitably realize it is bigger than I am. Luckily I didn't have to implement the plan and probably the bears saw me before I saw them and they decided to stay away from the strange looking creature stomping along the trail. They watched me all night at camp though, but I had a 12ga and wasn't worried.
Anyway, running away is the worst thing you can do. The best thing you can do is scare the animal before it has time to consider the situation. It often works with people too because I've found that pushing my nose against someone else's nose followed by asking what they intend to do about it usually results in them turning around and walking off never to be a problem again, even if they are bigger. Paralleling the principle of not-running, if you ever find your arm in an animal's mouth, don't pull, but push further in and it will weaken their bite; they will let go like a gag reflex of something. Teeth and claws are angled back such that it's impossible to get away by pulling unless flesh is torn off.
If you find yourself in a situation where you're the prey, like a city street or prison, don't make eye contact with anyone! Mind your own business lest you reveal your weakness and become a certain target. If you do make eye contact, you must then attack or run to a safety. Running is almost never the answer and only is a viable solution if sound shelter can be reached in sufficient time.