there’s a saying summarizing what to do if you encounter the three most common species of bears: “if it’s black fight back, if it’s brown lie down, if it’s white say goodnight.” (sometimes with the addition of “if it’s gummy put it in your tummy”) one time i read an article on what to do in bear attack events and they gave suuuper long and detailed answers for black and brown bears, and then just ended it with "As for a polar bear, rest in peace. :)"
black bears usually attack because they think you have food, they are relatively easily scared (i’ve heard them described as “big dangerous raccoons”) and if you can intimidate them they’ll generally back off. brown bears usually attack because they see you as a threat, so if you play dead (you wanna be on the ground for *at least 15 minutes after the brown bear leaves*) they’ll probably decide you’re not a threat and leave you alone.
polar bears, as op said, see humans as prey. they are BYFAR the biggest and strongest species of bear, it’s not even close. when standing upright, a black bear is about 5-6 feet tall, a brown bear is about 7-8 feet tall, and a polar bear is about 10-11 feet tall. THEY ARE THE LARGEST TERRESTRIAL PREDATOR ON EARTH. a polar bear could kick any other bear’s ass easily, so fighting back as a HUMAN is doomed to fail. and playing dead just makes their meal easier for them.
there is a place called Svalbard. it is a norwegian archipelago in the arctic ocean, and it is one of the northernmost human settlements in the entire world. in Svalbard, it is required by law to have a firearm with you to leave the settlement. you cannot visit Svalbard without a firearm permit. there are about 3 hundred polar bears in Svalbard and about 3 thousand more in nearby areas.
"When a hungry polar bear spots a potential meal, they don't hesitate. They attack. An unarmed human being has absolutely no ability to resist a polar bear attack. None at all. The largest polar bears can weigh in excess of 2,000 pounds, making them potentially more than ten times larger than the average human. Their jaws can crush and chew up the hardest of bones. Their hunger is often so extreme, they don't even bother killing you before they begin to eat you."
here’s an amazing 2 minute video of a cameraman who locked himself in a transparent cage to film a polar bear, which promptly attempted to kill him. cage did its job and protected him and he got some absolutely insane footage. the polar bear in this video is a female one, male polar bears are even bigger.
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romaincrisis
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