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getagrip_already

(14,260 posts)
Sat Aug 8, 2020, 11:36 AM Aug 2020

The National Park Service has a PSA - don't sacrifice your friend in a bear attack....

This is f'd up. I'm sure someone thought it was funny, probably a trump appointee, but it basically says hikers are cowards and abject failures as people.

There is an old oke I'm sure this is based on:

Q: How do you outrun a bear?

A: You don't, you just outrun the slowest person with you.

US government issues bear advice: friends don't let friends get eaten
The National Park Service has warned against sacrificing slower friends in a bear attack ‘even if the friendship has run its course’


https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/07/bear-attack-advice-sacrificing-friends

Here, the NPS is basically saying that this a problem they need to address, and in doing so indicates it is happening.

On it's surface it is pretty funny, and if it were an Onion article I'd be lmao. But it isn't, and they aren't.

Really bad attempt at humor inho. They don't even give any real advice. They just basically laugh at back country hikers, like they are some kind of liberal lice.

Your interpretation will surely vary. Carry on.

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hlthe2b

(101,742 posts)
2. NPS has to deal with one hell of a lot of public ignorance. There have been entire books written
Sat Aug 8, 2020, 11:43 AM
Aug 2020

on the unbelievably stupid, yet serious questions they get*. So, I get their dark sense of humor.

Two, I can remember from official activities I engaged in with NPS at a couple of parks: 1. "At what age (or altitude) do deer become elk?" 2. (At the canyon cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde by tourists annoyed a the distance required to drive there: "Why did these ancient tribes build their dwellings so far from the road"...

Yes, there were worse ones, but I've come to believe the two above were not only "real" but not limited to a handful of sadly "deficient" people.

Don't believe it? Just research the stats or news reports each year on the number of tourists that become distracted (cell phones, cameras, etc) and literally walk off the rim of the Grand Canyon to their deaths, willingly jump into deadly hot pools at Yellowstone, or put their toddler children on the backs of wild bison to get a great pic!

getagrip_already

(14,260 posts)
4. yup - there is a whole site dedicated to darwinism at the grand canyon....
Sat Aug 8, 2020, 12:02 PM
Aug 2020

I forget the name of it, but basically it lists all the ways to die in the grand canyon, and it isn't a short list.

My favorite was a backpacker who was pulled backwards by the weight of her pack while leaning against a wall. She fell something like 500 feet.

So yes, I get there are city folk who don't have or want a clue who go out and do and ask dumb questions. But that is one of the purposes of a national park - to let people who don't have a clue admire the raw and awesome beauty the parks have to offer. And it helps if they remember some of it when some corporation wants to put a surface mine or a damn in one.

But really, this isn't the way to get a message across.

Unless you are a satire site. Which the nfs should not be.

Response to hlthe2b (Reply #2)

Iggo

(47,492 posts)
7. They don't get to make the rules about what happens when food animals run from predators.
Sat Aug 8, 2020, 12:52 PM
Aug 2020

Those rules are already well established.

Journeyman

(15,002 posts)
8. Bears are easy to outsmart and protect yourself from . . .
Mon Aug 10, 2020, 04:34 AM
Aug 2020

In Montana, when I hiked there some years ago, there was sage advice posted at the trail head.

The sign warned that both Black Bears and Grizzlies were in the area and advised that the way to safeguard from attack was to wear small bells on your clothing, to alert the bears you were nearby, and to carry pepper spray to use if the bears got too close.

The sign said the best way to determine if there were bears nearby was to look for fresh scat along the trails. Black Bear scat, it said, has small berries and bits of fur mixed in, all part of the bear's diet. Grizzly scat was easier to identify as it's larger, smells like pepper spray, and has little bells sprinkled throughout.

getagrip_already

(14,260 posts)
10. lol - I love that story.....
Mon Aug 10, 2020, 09:22 AM
Aug 2020

The one piece of advice in the ad wasn't bad. Don't run, move slowly sideways, speak in a calm voice so the bears (who have really terrible eyesight) will realize you aren't prey or another bear. Hopefully, they don't see humans as a threat or an annoyance to exterminate.

When they stand on their hind legs and move their head back and forth, they are trying to figure out what you are. They are apparently nearsighted. If they think you are a bear, they will challenge you or attack you outright.

I've never run into a bear in the wild. But, I have dealt with bulls. Bulls can be friendly and calm one moment, and fly into an aggressive rage as quickly as a spouse who is sick of you leaving the bathroom facility a mess. I've seen them turn and ram a cage with 2 inch steel bars and actually put a bow in it; I still need counseling from that surprise. Hormones make them edgy and just a bit cray cray. They are all teenagers with an attitude.



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