Talking with Bears

Horse whisperer, dog whisperer, bear whisperer! Can this happen? Can a human learn to communicate with another species? Yes, and to a fairly high level. Horses and dogs are prime examples.

My dog, Nikki, had a vocabulary of about 80 words. He knew what the vacuum cleaner was before you bought it out, knew the differences between his football, baseball and tennis ball and knew directional commands in the forests. He understood up trail, down trail and many other commands.

His prime success was to figure out my personality. He understood the pack mentality; I was the alpha male, but also understood how humans worked above the pack mentality. In the early stages of our relationship we had our issues with power rankings but once he figured that out (it took two fights) we had a great friendship.

The reason I developed a relationship with Nikki was his intelligence. He learned how to cooperated and tell us his needs. We learned what he wanted. It was a fascinating study. Nikki helped teach me how to talk to bears. Dogs may be easier to learn from and work around. Nikki never wanted to eat me, bite me, yes once in awhile, but that was about all. We learned to talk through our body movements, motions, voice inflections and direct eye contact. He gave me the building blocks to learn to talk with bears. My job was to assemble these blocks into some order.

Time, contact and patience mixed with fearlessness and respect are the keys to learning a bear’s language.

Time

Time is probably the most important. I have spent literally thousands of hours with wild bears, mostly black, observing, following (yes, I am a bear stalker), and hanging out with them. Through this investment in time, I was able to witness how they live and how they communicated their wants and needs to other bears and to me. Each encounter either gave me new information or reinforced what I had seen many times before. It all began to fall into order the more time I spent with them in the wilderness.

Contact

Contact is learning what the bears eat, where and when to find this food. Then it’s a matter of being able to put in the miles to find the bears in these places. Bears are giant stomachs with a short tail, a head with a huge amount of teeth and four powerful legs. When awake, they eat constantly. They’re not picky. They eat just about anything. Once you understand this one bear fact and know where their preferred foods are in an environment, the bears themselves are easy to locate. To remain in contact with them just find the refrigerator - easy lesson.

Patience

Bears taught me patience. Bears taught me how to enjoy a relaxing afternoon basking in the sun in the high country. Some of my meetings with bears were fleeting moments in time and others encompassed hours of sitting twenty feet away from them, talking and observing and learning. Stalking a bear for ten miles through the forest was cool. At the end I would usually be lost and would have to depend on a map and compass to figure out where I was. But I was happily lost! Those hikes taught me how a bear moves through the forest, what they find tasty, when they like to nap and so much more about their lives. Patience is a key element in learning how to talk with bears. So is walking!

Fearlessness and Respect

Fearlessness and respect go hand in hand. Without one, the other will not work. A bear will sense your fear in any encounter. They pickup on your emotions and demeanor! They see your fearful body movements and react to these in a number of ways. They can leave or see you as something looking quite tasty. When you present yourself as an equal they will either leave, attack or be curious about what you are.

Black bears are intelligent, very curious and actually quite mild in temperament. If you are comfortable with them, they are generally calm with you.

Respecting a bear is also critical. In the back of my mind, I see an extremely powerful animal with the ability to maim and kill me in seconds. I respect the bear’s intellect and curiosity but also its power and aggressiveness.

My Journey with Bears

In the early 80’s, I climbed and backpacked in the Sierra’s of California. Here is where I began my journey with bears. On these mountain excursions we would be accosted by black bears wanting to munch the food we hauled in on our backs. There always seemed to be a battle of the minds as to who would win. In the thirty years of climbing and backpacking in the range we only lost small amounts of food on two occasions, both of them after great effort from the bears.

At some point during those early years, I am not sure when, I started to talk with the bears, verbally. While this made me feel better, it had no effect on the bears. Further down this learning curve, I began to look at how they communicated amongst themselves and began to see both verbal communication and body language cues. Then I started to photograph these interesting critters. That is when I closed the distances that would make my encounters with them more personal. With black bears, I began to see that by watching their movements I could predict if a bear would be as curious with me as I was with them.

I really began to hone my skills in the central Sierras between Mt Langley, Woods and Window Lakes. This seventy-five by sixty mile delightful slice of wilderness became my stomping grounds for almost 6 years. I would spend much of the summer and autumn climbing, backpacking, observing, fishing, relaxing and photographing bears.

Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Parks had a black bear population estimated at about 300. I met many of them. During this time I met happy bears and not so happy bears but all of them taught me many lessons. During this period I also spent time in Yellowstone with both black and brown bears. The behaviors that I observed in Yellowstone, with both species, showed fairly similar behavioral traits. I also read articles and books from such bear experts as Steven Herrero. During this time I was able to observe literally hundreds of bears and learn from all of them. One large lesson-learned was that brown bears were much less curious and tolerant of humans. I took this to heart quickly.

A little side note, bears that you never see also give you a great learning experience! Much of my Sierra travel was solo and off trail. In one area between Rae Lakes and Sixty Lakes Basins, I came across some huge dung piles. There was an exceptionally large black bear living in this basin. I crossed this basin many times and each time I would see signs of him. I also sensed that he was close. I could feel him and sensed that he was watching me. This large bear, just sitting in the labyrinth of ponderosa pines, hidden from my view but observing this intruder in his wilderness home. I loved my time there, hoping that he would allow me to visit with him. He never did! He was my mystery bear, the teacher without ever seeing him.

So How does Talking to Bears Work?

Ok, so how does this work Mr. Bear Whisperer? How do you talk with bears? Let me set the scene, and I believe that you will see how it works. Some poor souls have been in this situation or a closely related one and will really be able to relate to these signs and signals.

You, Mr. Husband, arrive home at 2 am, smelling of rum, perfume (not your wife’s), and what appears to be someone else’s lipstick on your cheek and collar. Whoops! The pretty little wife just stares at you, not saying a word, but her look and body language tells you that the couch will be your new sleeping locale unless you come up with a very good story or massive amounts of contrition and jewelry. Otherwise, a divorce attorney will be your next best friend.

No verbal words came from her, a few grunts, a sigh and a few more unimaginable noises but no words that would signal her inner rage. Her posture, the ‘look’ and the evil eye contact told you things were heading south and in a hurry. Her body language is quite telling - the arms tightly folded, the stare of the hollow eyes that penetrate to your soul, head held down, rigid body stature, tense shoulder muscles, feet padding the floor, lips turned almost to a growl. The rigid stalking movements follow, circling you, standing in front of you with a scowling look of rage and anger, possibly a swipe of the paw. All in all you know this was a major mistake and if you survive it you will count yourself as fortunate.

Well, bears look just about the same as this distressed wife but instead of leaving you to wallow in your self-inflicted pity and pain they false charge you, maul or kill you. Either way, wife or bear, you are in deep trouble.

The body posture and movements of the distressed wife are surprisingly similar to what bears do. The results may be different but the signs are very similar. Just a thought here, but does this tell you something about bears and people and how really we may not be as different as we think?

Bears pad their feet when they are disturbed. This is one of the first distress signals. Always watch a bears ears and tail, both will be tucked away when stressed. Their head will be down, shoulders tensed and compacted as the muscles tense for flight or flight. Their eyes will not be soft and searching but direct and fixed. They may be gnashing their teeth, growls or making deep guttural vocalizations. Some or all of these are not good signs during a bear encounter.

So how do I act back? I talk to bears as they talk to me. I stomp my feet, lower my head and make low guttural noises like they do. I make myself look bigger and stalk them the way they stalk me. I will charge a black bear and I look at them with a menacing stare. I do what they do to me and they understand me. It is rather cool to do this and be successful. When a bear backs off I know I have been taught well.

The eyes tell a separate story and one that needs to be learned. Many people believe and teach that looking into their eyes is a sign of aggression or somehow disturbs the black bear. I am not a person that believes this. During close encounters, I have experienced just the opposite. As we, the bear and I, maintain vital eye contact, our understanding of each other’s motives and personalities increase. By looking into his eyes, I see his intentions coupled with all the other signs he is giving me. The eyes are the most important. They tell me if he is curious or hungry.

These are some of the signs and signals that help me in understanding the bear’s language. It is much more complex and takes years to learn, but during an encounter I know the bear’s attitude and intentions within about a minute of our meeting. I know whether it might cut and run, charge me, stalk me or just sit and relax. It is always exciting and exhilarating, and I can assure you, fun.

Bears are Different, Just Like People

We also must understand that each bear within a species and within different species are vastly different. I never treat all bears the same, just as I do not treat all people the same. Each bear has his own personality and characteristics and they must be accounted for in your interactions with them. That helps make communications even more challenging but also interesting.

Tim Treadwell taught us that a person can live around brown bears as long as you have rules and learn to live by them. All these rules are subject to change at any time so you are always adapting to new situations and new bears. Tim Treadwell’s death also brings forward the simple fact that one mistake can be your last.

I have awoken browns in the backcountry, stumbled to close to them on a trail and have not been charged. When this happens, I immediately show signs of non-aggression to the bear, talk in a calm and gentle voice and gain eye contact as soon as possible. Once in a backcountry area of Yellowstone, I was moving through a biscuit root field that a brown bear was feeding in. He false charged me coming within twenty feet or so. I backed up and then held my ground. My bear spray was ready to use. When he stopped, we just looked at each other and then I backed out of his refrigerator. My mistake! He let me know and then we went on our merry way. Scary, yes, but again knowing how to act saved both of us.

Black bears are the most laidback of all the bears. Most are calm and curious. These are the bears that I have learned from. I seldom work with front-country bears. Backcountry bears are more settled and more predictable most of the time. Black bears will harm you if you make a mistake or run into that bear having a bad hair day or the predatory black. Because of these types of bears, I always carry bear spray. I have always been able to communicate with them so I have never deployed this pepper spray. They are pretty cool animals.

This journey has taken me almost thirty years to travel. It has been fun, enjoyable and at times terrifying. Having a 400 pound brown bear charging me was quite the nasty experience. I just kept my head calm and dealt with the situation as my training dictated. I was happy that my teachers taught me well.