Timely topic, Tony, and that article has good advice, particulary with respect to bear spray.

A good friend, a senior biologist with NPS who spends a great deal of time in the backcountry, once told me "Bear Spray is most effective when the can is taped to the barrel of a 12guage shotgun loaded with rifled slugs."

Because of the limited range and the fact that bears can run at speeds of up to 35mph, you don't have much time to spray a charging bear.

The spray is your only choice in the national parks where firearms are prohibited and I carry a can with me, but the best to avoid unhappy endings is to follow the advice given above, use common sense, and make your personal safety, not photography, the #1 priority when sharing ground with bears, whether Grizzlies or Black Bears. This is a quote from a NPS website concerning a woman who was killed by black bears in the Smokies a few years ago: "The woman who was recently killed by a mother bear and cub was found to have pictures to the offending bears in her camera."

To paraphrase the old song; "He ain't my brother but he sure is heavy":



Regards,

Dick:)