Bear of the Bell

Bear of the Bell 

 

 

 

 

“So was mamma anywhere in sight? I would think 20 ft is a little too close. Around here, we have little bell keychains on our backpacks to scare the bears away as you're hiking.” – Ms M.

 

 

 

Well Ms M., both here in Tahoe, and back when I lived in Colorado, we do the jingle-bell thing too. Black bears tend to be wary of people. A black bear is most dangerous, as are most animals, if they have young’ums around or when they are cornered with no escape route. The bears’ natural reaction is – fight or flight – and given a chance to escape, they will pick flight instead of fight. The little bells worn by hikers and campers, act as an early warning system, alerting the bears to your presence in their woods. Knowing that someone is nearby in the woods, the bears are aware of you and keep a wide berth. Wearing bells, you are much less likely to sneak up on and startle an unsuspecting bear. This technique works well with black bears.

 

Leading a hike one time, our group came across some scat on the trail. I told them it was from a black bear.

 

Asked how I could tell,  I replied, “well first the size, it’s to large for the other animals in these woods, and you can see the little bits of undigested parts of shoots and berry stems in the poop.” 

 

“Oooh,” they said, looking around a bit nervously, and they started giving a shake to the little bells I passed out to pin on their flannel shirts when we started the tour.

 

A little while later someone asked, “you said that’s black bear poop. Just how do you know it’s a black bear poop and not a grizzly bear?” 

 

“Well, that’s easy,” I told them.

 

“If’n it was a grizzly bear, instead of shoots and berry stems, the scat would have had bits of flannel and little brass bells in it!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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