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May 10, 2022 · Yes, grizzly bears do attack humans. About 40 grizzly bear attacks are recorded each year; a majority of these attacks are from protective female grizzly bears with cubs rather than their male counterparts.
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- Overview
- Avoidable Attacks
- I Don’t Blame the Bear
Survival rates for bear attacks are high. And those who have been mauled are often forgiving.
The late Jim Cole never thought of himself as a high-stakes gambler. He accepted risks whenever he ventured into the wild country inhabited by grizzly bears. A black pirate’s patch over his left eye and scars deep on his face were all the testaments he needed.
Cole owned the rare distinction of having been mauled badly twice by grizzlies—in incidents involving different bears and ecosystems in the lower 48—then surviving to share the lessons he learned.
Just two weeks before he died, the 60-year-old wildlife photographer and passionate hiker mused on my front porch in Bozeman, Montana: “How lucky I am,” he said, “to still be ambulatory and in a place to bring more respect for the Great Bear.”
Not everyone injured by a bear would be so forgiving. But a few high-profile encounters across the United States this year have raised the question of how to live alongside bears:
Living With the Wild. As bear populations rebound across the United States, and as people increasingly move into their habitat, bear-human run-ins are inevitable. This is one of several stories asking: How do we live with the predators?
This isn’t windshield biology. It’s bolstered by known scientific data and a new soon-to-be published review of 140 years’ worth of bear attacks on people in Alaska, a state which has all three bear species (brown, black, and polar) and more total bears than any other. The analysis of 675 attacks is being prepared by noted researchers Tom Smith, a ...
When Nic Patrick of Cody, Wyoming was mauled by a mother grizzly with cubs in the South Fork of the Shoshone River drainage two years ago, he didn’t blame the bear. (See the video above for his story.) As Patrick, 65, was being rushed into town for medical treatment, he pleaded with wildlife officials not to take lethal action against the mother bruin, whom he said was only protecting her young.
Jim Cole told me in the aftermath of his close calls that he never felt any animosity for bears and certainly didn’t blame them. In over a dozen bear attacks I’ve written about in which survivors were interviewed, most didn’t blame the bear or want harm to come to it.
Based on his research into exit interviews with mauling victims, Smith says it’s a common sentiment for survivors to hold no malice toward the animals that injured them. And often, if attacks are deemed defensive, bears are not killed or removed from parks. (Related: "What Do You Do With a Bear That Kills a Person?")
The first time Cole ran into trouble with a grizzly was September 29, 1993 in Glacier National Park, when he accidentally surprised one on a trail. To show its displeasure, the bear bit into his scalp and chomped on his wrist as he tried to defend himself. He mended. In the aftermath, Cole’s interest in nature photography and his devotion to bear conservation increased. However, in addition to the earlier mauling, Cole had been bluff charged by other grizzlies on a couple of occasions, and repelled them with bear spray, acknowledging that he had sometimes pushed the envelope by entering the comfort zone of his subjects.
In fact, after he was once ticketed by rangers for getting too close to bears, Yellowstone enacted regulations informally called “Cole’s Law” which mandate that people maintain a buffer of at least 100 yards between themselves and bears at all times.
In May 2007, some 14 years after his encounter in Glacier Park, Cole was bushwhacking through Yellowstone’s Hayden Valley, not far from where several other hikers over the years have been killed or wounded. Cole told me that bears in the valley were seen feeding on wildlife carcasses. And he admitted that he was breaking protocols by hiking alone, off trail, not making noise, hoping to take pictures of feeding bears.
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- Todd Wilkinson
May 4, 2022 · Yes, bear populations are increasing, and yes, human–grizzly bear conflicts are on the rise. And that’s a real problem. But the best research available shows that grizzly attacks and human deaths aren’t increasing—at least for now. A tranquilized grizzly bear in a culvert trap. Glacier NPS.
May 24, 2023 · Bears, generally, do not eat humans because humans are not the primary source of food for bears. Some species, such as the polar bear and the grizzly bear, have a history of attacking and killing humans, and sometimes, the dead human becomes food for the bear.
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In Yellowstone National Park, grizzly bears that have lost their fear of people forage beside roads, ignoring tourists who vie for pictures. Dr. Stephen Herrero (2005) wrote that these bears have not injured any bear-viewers and “are less likely to attack hikers or bear viewers on a per-encounter basis.”.
Jul 22, 2022 · If you surprise a grizzly/brown bear and it charges or attacks, do not fight back! Only fight back if the attack persists. Never run from a surprised bear because it can cause a predatory reaction from the bear.
Feb 9, 2021 · Fatal attacks on humans are rare—on average one encounter every three years in the Lower 48. Far more common is people killing bears—by illegally shooting them, striking them in vehicles, or...
