swagman said:
As RM said on one of his programs you are a lot more at risk of getting hyperthermia than being involved in any sort of bear incident.
There is a good amount of research that supports this; Bear attacks are so rare as to be hardly a threat to life at all compared to the mentioned hypothermia. The techniques RM advocates for dealing with an enounter aren't really up to date, but one could do worse. A professor at the University of Calgary wrote a book (Bear Attacks, their causes and avoidance; Stephen Herrero) about his studies of the bear populations that inhabit the nearby Rocky Mountains. It's a good read.
Essentially, bear attacks happen when you surprise a mother bear with cubs, come across a bear defending a carcass and, very rarely, predatory action.
Larger groups are less likely to be attacked, to the point that no recorded attacks have occured on groups of 6 or more , with only 1 or 2 on groups of 5.
Seasonality plays a role as well; foraging bears in the fall and spring are a bit more dangerous.
Habitualized bears that are used to humans and their food and garbage are far more likely to end up mauling somebody.
People in bear country that make efforts to minimize their footprint by sleeping away from where they cook, hanging their food out of reach, keeping food out of their tents, etc are far less likely to attract bears and thus less likely to end up in an encounter. People aren't even aware there is a bear in most (over 90%, it is believed) encounters; the creature leaves before the person even knows it was there. Common sense needs to rule the day, and that sense is to take sensible precautions, but don't stress out about it. It ruins your fun when you think there is a man-eater behind every bush.
