A lady told me one time you
can't go where you mind hasn't went.
October, 2017. My hunter and I were...
...attacked by a bear.
...fire crackling beneath cinematic music...
...low bear grunts and growls beneath cinematic music...
We left camp, thinking we were
going for a nice evening hunt.
Finally, we shot our elk. I can remember telling
her, 'this is great. We're only a mile from camp,
'we'll be back eating steaks in an hour and a half.
...cinematic music bed...
Here, you're in grizzly country
and it is a bit different in that you as the hunter are here alongside an apex predator,
the grizzly bear.
I was head down in an elk,
he (the hunter) made the most perfect archery stalk
that you could ever do.
The hunter seen the bear
at full charge at about 25 yards.
...muffled snorts...
For such a large animal,
they are so quiet.
Most of the time you don't hear 'em coming up on you.
Then, last second, they got that...that speed that leaves you split seconds
to make a decision.
He (the bear) made two bounds to get to us
...music intensifies...
The bear hit me, and then attacked her.
...bear roars...
and then came back to me. Then grabbed the elk and left.
All he wanted was that elk. If he'd have asked, we'd have given it to him.
...howling winds, rustling leaves...over cinematic music
Narrator: Wyoming,
it's home to some of the wildest
and most pristine wilderness in the lower 48 (states).
Here, the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem thrives,
and remains one of the few places a hunter can
experience the land, and the wildlife, as it was before the modern era.
...cinematic music, wildlife sounds, hoof clopping ...
But with these wild places,
come real dangers.
Knowledge, and preparation go a long way toward reducing risks, and keeping people safe.
For the professional outfitter and guide,
safely hunting with clients in bear country, is a serious undertaking.
That requires a strong awareness of bears
and a thorough knowledge of their behavior and biology.
...flowing water sounds...
We're seeing bears in places where we haven't seen bears in 100 years.
In 1975,
grizzly bears were put on the endangered species list. I think there was between 125 and 150 bears in the whole ecosystem.
Since then we've had a long slow recovery,
but now we have a lot higher density of grizzly bears in the ecosystem,
and a much further distribution.
It's really important for us to minimize conflicts
and minimize human caused bear mortality. ...bird noises...cinematic music...
...dog tags jingling, dog running, panting... What I think has been a great disservice,
to the grizzly bears is this
notion that these bears are immediately dangerous...
and are unstoppable.
There's been a lot of bears
injured and killed
by folks who didn't understand the behavior that bear was exhibiting.
I think there have been some folks that have been
injured or killed because they didn't understand what behavior that bear was exhibiting.
They're animals. They behave a certain way.
If you understand how they behave,
your chances of coming out of an encounter
in good shape are a lot better.
...guitar strumming...bear snorts....
Narrator: One major key to de-escalating a bear encounter,
is understanding bear behavior.
99 percent of bear encounters end with the bear running off,
and avoiding people.
There's two situations where bears don't avoid people,
one is aggressive, defensive behavior,
and the other one is predatory behavior.
When we encounter a bear, we want to look at its head, shoulders, and it's posture.
A lot of times, in aggressive defensive encounters, bears show signs of stress.
They do this by woofing at you, or popping their teeth.
...bear woofing...
A really serious stress indicator is a bluff charge.
A lot of times with bluff charges
their head is high, and they're not coming at full speed.
All those stress indicators are trying to tell you,
that you're too close to their food, space, or cubs.
If you run across a very aggressive bear,
the best thing to do is
not get worked up.
...sticks breaking beneath feet. Leaves rustling....
If you try to run or get excited, or make sharp moves, that could cause more aggression.
If you run, that kicks in their predatory instinct.
In those situations, get your deterrent ready,
stand your ground, and and when he gives you an opening, back off slowly.
Keep your eye on him. You certainly never want to turn your back on him.
...bear snorting...bear spray cocking noise.. .
..."whoa, bear"...
Narrator: If a bear is exhibiting defensive behavior,
and makes contact before you can use a deterrent,
drop and cover by lying flat on your stomach.
Interlock your fingers.
Cover your neck. Protect your face and vital organs.
Spread your legs shoulder-width apart to prevent the bear from rolling you over.
Do not yell or fight back.
Once the bear feels the threat is neutralized,
it will break off the attack.
Make certain the bear has left the area before you move.
Though extremely rare,
predatory behavior occurs for a variety of reasons.
One cause for predatory behavior is human food conditioning.
As bears receive more human food rewards,
they begin to lose their natural fear and respect of people.
It's not very common, but those bears
are much more bold and they don't show signs of stress.
You might be aware of that bear for a long length of time,
they're intent on killing you, to eat you as a food source.
Narrator: Unlike defensive behavior, a predatory bear will not exhibit stress as it approaches you.
Its posture will show more confidence and focused intensity.
If you are unable to use your deterrent in time,
then fight back.
In a defensive attack,
play dead and protect your neck and organs.
In a predatory attack, fight back.
A bear may approach because it is curious,
habituated,
or testing its dominance.
It's important to assess the bear's behavior
and in non-defensive encounters,
act assertive.
...acoustic guitar strumming with a light drum beat...
Bear spray is a tool in the toolbox,
firearms are a tool in the toolbox.
Your brain is a tool in the toolbox.
To keep you from getting in those encounters,
and keeping yourself safe.
As a guide make sure your client understands
all tools available to them.
How to use them,
practice with them, how to pull the bear spray,
also how to be proficient with their firearm.
Possibly the firearm that the guide is carrying.
For most people that recreate in the wild,
bear spray is probably the easiest to learn how to use,
and be proficient at.
When we investigate cases where people shoot bears out of self-defense,
I would say about 50 percent of the time
they still get injured before they are able to kill the bear or it leaves on its own.
That's why bear spray is advantageous, because it makes that big cloud.
It shoots out 25-30 feet.
Narrator: Always keep your bear spray on you or within reach.
Bear spray is useless if it is in your backpack or not quickly accessible.
When deploying bear spray,
pull it from the holster,
and remove the safety clip.
Pressing the top trigger down,
begin spraying low to the ground, and build a wall upward in an "X" or "Z" pattern.
You need to think you are building a wall, between you and the bear.
You're doing an "X" pattern, spraying it, and keeping it low to the ground,
because that's how those bears come in.
They're generally low to the ground,
and if you can build that wall of spray
so they hit that, that's the best way to deploy bear spray.
Narrator: As a guide,
it's important to think about the skill level of your client
when planning how to deter a bear in the field.
Your life could be in their hands.
I don't really recommend a pistol.
If you think you're good enough to where you can hit a beach ball
thrown at you when you're not expecting it,
then the pistol is a good idea.
If a bear attacks you, and he is coming fast,
you have to practice a lot and be very proficient with it.
There are a lot of things you can do to minimize
the seriousness of encounters.
Carcass management,
good camp practices,
safe hunting practices.
You need to go into it understanding that there is the possibility of a serious encounter,
and how best to prepare yourself to keep it from becoming very serious.
Narrator: Watch for bear signs, or a carcass.
these are indicators that a bear may be near by.
Also, always hunt with a partner,
whether you're a guide hunting with a client or a pair of hunters,
bears are deterred by groups.
Hunt together and stay within sight of each other.
During the fall hunting season,
bears are preparing for up to six months of winter hibernation.
They're in a stage of hyperphagia, or extreme hunger.
This motivates them to stock up on calories,
and hunt for nutrient-rich food sources,
such as animal carcasses.
These bears are looking for food,
hunters are providing food with the carcasses on the ground.
When you have meat on the ground,
there's the blood smell in the air.
The bears are really attracted to that.
It makes for a volatile situation.
...gunshot...
Narrator: After a hunter makes a successful kill,
the guide will begin processing the animal in the field,
while the hunter stands watch for any bears approaching.
As a guide,
this is one of the most vulnerable scenarios you can be in,
because you are relying on your client
who may have very little field experience to protect you against and impending bear encounter.
Many of the recent bear-related fatalities and injuries
have happened during this exact moment.
It's critical that you and your client have practiced and have a plan in place.
That little bit of preparation
could save you or your client's life.
As a guide,
you're gonna be
dependent upon your client,
to be your backup.
To be watching for you, when you eyes are down as you're working on that elk.
Guides need to practice and talk with their hunters,
'we're in bear country, and this could happen,
this is what we need to do, and
do you know how to operate a pistol, do you know how to operate bear spray?'
A hunter might shoot his rifle a hundred times,
he's never pulled bear spray.
It's a good thing to get that muscle memory
to try and use it as much as we can.
Narrator: Bears have learned that a gunshot usually means food,
and with a sense of smell 7x stronger than a bloodhound,
even in archery season, it's likely they have already caught wind of the kill.
...gunshot...
That's why it's critical that everyone know their role in ensuring each other's safety
while processing game in the field.
When you kill and elk, you want to have a plan on what you are doing.
audible..."Hey"...
When you're going in on these carcasses
you need to make a lot of noise.
Let the bears know you are there,
have your firearm or bear spray ready
and accessible so if something does happen you can reach it quickly and react.
"See that carcass down here in the trees,
"that's where a bear will probably come in to."
"One of you be on this side where you have a clear view, "
"The other one come around to this side over here and have a view."
"Keep making noise."
"Have your bear spray ready."
"Give us a heads up if a bear does come in us quietly."
...nervous guitar strumming...
You need to know the lay of your land,
the way the wind is blowing,
the bears are typically going to come in
down wind where they can smell
As you take an animal apart, you release odor into the air,
the chances of a bear coming in increases.
Narrator: As a guide, you have a number of tools at your disposal,
to prevent a bear encounter.
In addition to having your client keeping watch with firearm and bear spray ready,
if you have horses with you, place them at different points around the kill.
Horses are a great alarm,
and will identify a bear,
and alert much sooner than a human will.
Horses also have a large presence,
and often discourage bears from approaching any closer.
If a bear comes in they're (horses) gonna perk up and snort and stomp,
so you can look for those signs to let you know.
Narrator: In addition to horses,
if you can gather more people to the site,
you can post them as additional lookouts.
If a bear sees a group of people,
they're more likely to keep a safe distance and wait for you to leave the area.
...horse grunting, bear breathing heavily, guitar strumming in background...
After successfully packing the meat,
it's important to get it off the mountain as soon as possible.
When bringing meat back to camp,
it must be hung on a meat pole, to prevent bears from getting to it.
When an elk gets carried back to camp to get hung up the meat pole,
gather up a few more people,
the more eyes out there, the better.
The more noise the better.
...cinematic music with animal noises...
Narrator: When the meat is hung,
it must be hung a minimum of 10 feet high,
and four feed away from any vertical structure.
Bears will be attracted to it.
So the meat pole must be posted a minimum of 100 yards from camp.
If everything is done correctly, the bears aren't gonna get anything, but the smell of the blood and the meat brings them in.
We don't want bears hanging around camp,
so we really encourage outfitters and hunters to get those carcasses packed out,
back to the trailhead, and off the forest as quickly as they can.
Narrator: Elk meat isn't the only camp attractant for bears.
Human food and garbage, as well as livestock feed, will draw bears in,
looking for an easy food reward.
The bears have a tremendous sense of smell,
so if you are leaving food, garbage, or trash laying around,
they're going to be able to sense that.
They'll come in, and if they do get a reward, they'll start associating food with people.
If a bear gets a food reward, they keep coming back.
So when bears come into camp, we want people to make noise and run them out of camp.
We want to not be a good experience for them (the bears).
...audible yelling from two men in a campsite...
Narrator: A clean camp is key,
guides and hunters need to manage the safe storage of food and animal feed.
Using bear safe containers and elevated storage,
helps prevent bears from being attracted to camp,
and gaining food rewards.
We don't keep any food or anything in our sleeping tents,
we have food storage containers that are certified bear proof.
Our grain and horse feed is all stored in a cache that is hung,
in a bear proof area where they can't get to.
Every night before we go to bed we hang our trash bags out here.
All to make sure there are no attractants or any reward for a bear to get in this camp.
When you take a client that has no experience in the backcountry,
your role in that situation is to educate them,
keep them safe,
make sure they have a great experience, and get them home.
Narrator: Hunting is a time honored tradition in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem,
your preparation and commitment to these best management practices,
will help you stay safe, have a great hunt, and
preserve our wildlands and wildlife.
When you come out here and you see a grizzly track in the snow,
you understand you're in some of the wildest country in the lower 48 states.
You get out in that country and you really get a sense
that you're part of something.
That is pretty hard to find anymore.
Bears are part of what makes that wilderness wild.
We have a responsibility to keep that wilderness wild.
Being bear safe and aware of what is going on around you is part of that.