Home » Plants & Animals » Bears » Communicating With Bears: Black Bears

Communicating With Bears: Black Bears

© Gerald Eugene Smith

Many of the problems that arise between bears and humans arise from the inability of humans to understand what the bears are saying, and their inability to communicate their intentions to the bears. Bears have a limited number of vocalisations that they commonly use, but these are often as much self-expressive as communicative. The most important bear communication is expression and body language. Some books give the misleading impression that bears don't have expressive faces but this is not at all true, it is just a matter of knowing how to read their expressions. Combined with appropriate body postures and movements, this leads to a surprisingly complex means of communication. One researcher in Alaska was able to identify 40 different social signals that grizzlies use among themselves. Since there are siginificant differences in communication systems between the different species, I will deal with each kind of bear separately. Remember advice for one species of bear often does not hold for another species.

DEALING WITH U.S. BLACK BEARS

The most common situation in which humans interact with black bears in the woods is the bear blowing and huffing, clacking his jaws and stamping his feet. This means "Go away you nasty human!" You will also see the bears do things like this when they feed together and feel crowded by their neighbors. If you persist in crowding the bear, he may reinforce it by making a brief mock charge, hissing, or tearing up a bush. You can try calming the bear down by standing in a relaxed posture, maybe with the hands palm out and open (to show you don't have a weapon), smiling (mouthed closed, showing teeth is not a friendly gesture), looking away and turning your gaze down and to the side, and talking or singing to the bear in a soft, easy voice. If you want to avoid the bear, just walk away without staring at him. Keep your movements easy, slow and relaxed.

If you meet an angry mama with cubs close up, freeze! Act like you have been turned to stone. Don't stare at them, and wait until she and the cubs have gone out of sight and hearing. If she hears you moving she is likely to come back and give you a very stern piece of her mind. On the rare chance that you are attacked by a mother black bear you have surprised close up, assume the protective fetal position face downwards and wait it out. Black bears rarely attack with the ferocity of mama grizzlies, and the injuries are rarely serious. The main thing to remember is not to so much as twitch after it is over until you are sure that she has left. She will probably stand to one side glaring suspiciously at you to see if you move, and you can expect a second helping if you do, so wait awhile before you get up. Expect lots of puncture wounds from numerous bites and big bruises from her pounding paws, but major tissue damage is unlikely. This is the only time when you should be passive in the face of a black bear attack.

The copyright of the article Communicating With Bears: Black Bears in Bears is owned by . Permission to republish Communicating With Bears: Black Bears in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.