A sobering bear attack/encounter in Wyoming back on the 14th prompted a fair amount of conjecture and discussion among our friends who routinely travel the backcountry of Montana and Wyoming to hike, fish, and hunt.
As the facts began to trickle out, laid out fairly objectively in this article from the Casper Star Tribune (their header and image below), several friends dug a bit deeper into the story.
Several of my compadres in fact forwarded the same commentary from a popular shooting sports news site, which recounted much of the same story as in presented in the CST. That article linked back to a June story (same site) referencing the work of Dave Smith, one of the foremost authorities on bear encounters and animal attacks, though he’s not necessarily the most popular/referenced in this arena, as he articulates positions and offers critiques of current science that counter some of what you’ll hear today (more below).
OF NOTE: If you really do spend time wandering around in bear country, carry some form of deterrent (spray or firearm, or both as we do) and be damned familiar with their use.
And if you have the least bit of interest in this area, you’d also be well served to dig into the facts/history/science of the spray vs. firearms debate, as there’s clearly been some cherry picking of data in some of the published studies (second Dave Smith link above, see the 1999 study vs. the 2012 study).
