Fact: Do this if you encounter a bear
To avoid encounters with bears, feel free to go and talk, grunt or sing in some other way in the forest.
For example, put a small bell in the belt so that it sounds when you walk. It doesn’t have to sound very loud, as the bear has good hearing and a good sense of smell.
If you meet a bear in the forest: Try to keep calm. Speak calmly and calmly back away from there. Better not run, because the bear runs 60 kilometers per hour.
Bears can see quite poorly, so feel free to put some garment, a cap or a jacket, away. Then the bear can curiously start to wonder what it is, go forward and sniff the object, smell the scent of humans and wander away from there.
If you are directly attacked by a bear with no chance to retreat, which rarely happens, curl up on the ground and make sure to protect your head and neck.
Source: Benny Gäfvert, predator expert, WWF
In virtually every hunting season for the past 30 years, hunter-bear encounters have occurred. Two of them have had a fatal outcome, he says Benny Gäfvertpredator expert at WWF, for TT.
During the hunt, the bears are often chased by dogs, have a high stress level and are therefore prone to attack.
“In several cases, it has been dogs that interrupt the bear’s attack, in a similar way as the teenage boy did with the bear that was lying on top of his father during the bear attack in Ljusdal,” says Benny Gäfvert.
This is how the hunting accident in Ljusdal happened: Boy hit a bear in the head when the father was attacked
The bear also knows if you are sneaking
For berry and mushroom pickers and other forest wanderers, however, the risk of encountering a bear in the forest is small, he emphasizes.
— The bears have very good hearing and a good sense of smell and often sense that people are on their way. Getting close to a bear unnoticed is very difficult, says Benny Gäfvert.
What can happen, however, is that you surprise a bear that is busy rooting around in blueberry rice or gnawing on prey.
If you come walking over a hill and the wind is so strong that the bear doesn’t pick up your scent, you could end up in a situation where both you and the bear are surprised.
— In such a situation, you should try to make the bear understand that you are a human, then it will want to get away. Back away slowly while speaking calmly, says Benny Gäfvert.
Protect head and neck
If, against all odds, the bear were to attack, you can lie down on the ground and protect your head and neck, he advises.
— The bear’s powerful jaws can cause nasty injuries. But in cases where bears have attacked, it is usually to mark that we are encroaching, then they seek to leave the area.
In the vast majority of cases, it is hunters with dogs who are attacked, but it has happened that, for example, forest cutters or people who pass a bear busy with prey are attacked.
– The difference then is that the bear mainly just wants to eliminate a threat. It might run over you and then run away. But a wounded bear is life-threatening, and to a greater extent completes an attack, says Benny Gäfvert.