Before I tell my story tonight there are a few facts you should know.
1. A bear that is 0 - 2 years old is called a cub and stays with his mother. A bear that is 3 - 5 is called a subadult, basically they are teenagers who are trying to find their way in the world after leaving mom. Over the age of five they are adults, maybe not full grown but adults.
2. When a bear is aggressive he will first yawn, then froth at the mouth and make popping sounds. If it feels threatened it will fake charge you. these are signs that you might be in trouble.
Now that you understand those facts the story will make more sense to you. We had arrived at Katmai Bay the day before the bear encounter takes place. We made camp on a plateau of a hillside looking out across the bay. We are surrounded by about 6 ft hill on three sides which we thought would protect our tents from the wind which was blowing at 20 mph. There were three of us in the group and each of us had our own tents. The tents were placed near the back of the plateau, our gear tent was placed in the middle of this area and we had bear barrels full of food stored at the opposite end of the area. Around all of this we strung an electrical fence and hooked the charger to solar powered batteries.
Day 2 at Katmai Bay. We wake up to rain. We cook breakfast and were just finishing eating when we notice a bear across the bay. Katmai Bay is very shallow and when the tide is low there are long sandbars that appear in the water. The bear we see is on one of these sandbars but a distance from us. As we are watching he starts to make his way through the water coming to the shore directly at the bottom of the hill from our camp sight. As he reaches the shore he looks directly up at us. So the three of us did what we were trained to do. We stood close together and waved our arms and yelled yah bear. We talked to it saying things like not up here and go away, follow the beach.
The bear however decided we needed to be checked out. He started to climb the hill. Needless to say we yelled a little louder and waved our arms a little more frantically. Still the bear came. He walked up the hillside on the left side of our camp and stopped. He was 10 feet away from us on the bear barrel side of the enclosure. We noticed that the bear was frothing at the mouth. Not a good thing. We continued to yell. We grabbed pots and pans and banged them together. We used anything that would make noice. All the things told to us in bear training would discourage a bear.
Not this bear. He walked straight ahead but farther down our enclosure then turned and headed towards us. He was heading directly towards my tent. We moved over to the other side of the enclosure and yelled some more. Now remember that the winds are 20 mph and it is raining.
The bear is now 4 feet from us. One of my partners had their bear spray ready but because of the wind we didn't want to use it. The reason being two fold. One, because of the wind we might get sprayed instead of the bear- not good. Two- after about 30 minutes bear spray becomes an attractant to bears because it begins to smell like food so we would have had to move our camp.
I had a safety flare on me so I ignited it. Red flames shot out of the end of the flare. I held it out for the bear to see. It moved a couple of steps closer. I took a step forward and was waving my arms in wide arcs yelling at the top of my lungs. The bear stopped. I kept waving my arms, my partners were stomping their feet and yelling with me. The bear kept staring at us. The only thing between us and the bear besides the three feet of space was our electric fence. The electric fence run by solar power. It was raining. I hope you understand.
Finally, the bear turned back up the hill. He walked around the top of the hill around our enclosure then disappeared down the back side. We kept up our yelling for about five minutes, then one of my partners climbed up the hill to see where the bear went. He was a distance from us heading away.
The other biologist in the group looked at me and said I didn't like that bear. Our intern was pretty shaken up. He was from Detroit and it was his first bear encounter of any kind. Me, I burned my hand from the drippings of the flare and didn't even realize it. My bear spray and my knife were always in arms reach the rest of the trip.
The two of us biologist knew the bear was a subadult. The intern from Detroit said he couldn't believe it was just a subadult it was the biggest bear he had ever seen. My partner and I just told him it was a teenager trying to show us he was something to reckon with. I am not sure that comforted the intern. The other biologist went over to the solar panels and gave it a kick and and said "piece of shit." Then we laughed.
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