• What do you do about the bears?
  • I talk to them

This was an actual conversation. The answer may not be the most glamorous around but that’s what I found myself saying and it felt to me as very meaningful at the time. It still does.

I then offered a longer explanation to make sure I made myself understood. I wasn’t trying to be smart, my answer was for real.

I talk to them to show them I’m calm and I’m not aggressive. They may not understand what I’m saying but they do get my mood. Just as straightforward as it is for us humans to understand when an animal is angry, when it’s just alert or when it’s relaxed, so is for bears and most other wildlife, it’s a routine check.

This applies to wildlife in general. Bears in particular are very intelligent and very close to us in many accounts so we can easily relate to them. We share many physical and emotional features and at a certain, basic level we can speak the same language and understand each other.

Attacking other animals is not a bear pastime and they probably have better things to do anyway. But what if they get angry or scared? That’s right, I talk to them so they see no reason to be angry or scared.

So far it’s worked.

Disclaimers

I didn’t want to litter the intro with boring disclaiming. Now the core message is out, let me clarify before you read on:

  1. This only applies where you’re no prey. In case you are, spare the talking and escape or fight.
  2. Some animals may be after your food. It’s not the same as being after yourself.
  3. I’m an urban guy who hikes. I really have no clue what I’m talking about. It just makes sense to me.

Over-sanitation of the urban environment, lack of contact with nature, exposure to an over-dramatized, sensationalist version of animal behavior, all contribute to a general failure to understand how nature & wildlife work. My own experience may be limited but it talks to me a very different language. What follows is my reasoned view on both sides of the story.

Wildlife as conflict

Fear of wildlife comes from a vision of animals as conflict. This is not the default case. Conflict may happen but it’s not the default case, I’d say for no single animal and certainly not for the typical bear example. Humans are not natural prey for most of the animals we can meet out there. Wild animals are sensible and intelligent and they basically want to live a quiet life, just as we humans do.

Power & Vulnerability

Let me stick to the bear example here. They’re powerful animals and many people fear them for that reason. If you’re one of them, remember this: bears are intelligent enough to manage that power and use it properly . Life is about well being and animals have this clear enough. Being powerful itself means nothing. I can see how many humans have this wrong.

People feel vulnerable when they meet a powerful animal and people are not used to feel vulnerable. We are used to be at the top of the power pyramid and we feel lost when we think we’re not. We haven’t been exposed to such state of things, yet this is the way nature works! Wildlife understand this perfectly well and they’re not killing each other all the time just because they could. That’d make no sense and that’s not the way animals work.

Fear & Aggression

But conflicts do happen, some will argue. Shit happens sometimes and it’s our responsibility as intelligent animals to avoid it in everybody’s interest, yet it’s often humans that make shit happen, even if unintentionally.

Fear is a loaded gun. When you’re in fear, you stop acting naturally. You get alert, then defensive and take a stance that feels aggressive even if you don’t mean to. It’s a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy: if it’s aggression that you expect, you’ll get it.

I’ve seen this happening many times. It’s odd because the person in fear doesn’t realize it’s the root of the conflict and will blame the allegedly aggressive  animal, yet it’s so clear it’s just the other way around when you see no potential for trouble and can watch the scene from outside the fear-aggression loop.

Love & Respect

Think of it this way: human-wildlife relations are in essence no different from any inter-human relations. Where there’s love or respect, there’s not much place for fear and it isn’t fear who governs our actions, then everything flows naturally.

Love is emotional, maybe a romantic idea in this context but it’s a nice feeling that makes us feel well so why not! If you can feel love for the wildlife, you’ll have a better chance of seeing the eyes before the paws.

Respect for wildlife has a deep meaning. It’s awareness of our place in the natural world and our position as visitors in somebody else’s home. It’s humble acceptance that we’re not in charge and that there’s nothing wrong with that and there’s nothing dangerous in that. We don’t have full power but we don’t need it to be out there and be fine. We’re not gonna die just because we’re not the masters of this universe. This is actually about respect for not only wildlife or the environment but for our own place in the picture: we’re not that important.

Love is an option. Respect is a must.

If you want to keep listening to Radio 3, do nothing

I remember this funny, self-promotion radio ad above. It applies here in the sense that sometimes doing nothing is all that’s needed.

Do nothing, be natural, show the wildlife you meet you’re not a threat. Actual talking is optional but it may help animals and yourself relax. After all, human thought process is language and it’s quite likely that the way you talk actually models the way you behave.

Talk to wildlife as you would talk to another human when you mean to be gentle. Many animals are perfectly sensitive to this.

Well beyond avoiding conflict, I talk to animals all the time, many of them, big and small. I don’t know if it means anything to them, I just know it means a lot to me. It’s about my place in the whole picture.

A personal tale

My closest bear encounter ever involved a family scene, mom and cub. I was hiking on the PCT in Northern California, it was early morning in a forested section with plenty of undergrowth just south of Belden town. At the turn of a corner, I noticed movement ahead on my left, at the very edge of my vision field I could recognize something furry climbing a tree trunk. I looked there and it took me a long second to identify the subject: a dark brown bear cub clinging to the tree trunk. At that moment, I knew what to expect next so it took me little time to identify mom, a beautiful, cinnamon color bear further to the left.

It was a paradigm trouble situation, with the cub in between mom and myself. The cub was surely following instructions to climb to a tree at the sign of potential danger. The adult bear was alert, looking at me, not moving neither showing signs of aggressiveness.

I was alert too so I could hold back from my impulse to stop and watch, not for enjoying the sight neither for fear of what could happen. Instead I kept walking in my original direction which was taking me along and past the bear family. I talked to the bears as I went along, nothing different from what I’d have done with many other animals or even other humans, some hello and good wishes in a charming tone. The bears kept an eye on me for as long as I did keep an eye on them, which I tried to not overdo. As soon as I was past the scene and round a bush, I could hear the sound of big body moving fast through vegetation and I knew the bears were gone.

I was alert but not fearful. I had no reason to, the bears were never aggressive. I was just another animal passing through and I thought the best idea was to keep being just that. No stop, no panic, no running, not even a change of direction, just keep going, i.e. do nothing. It all felt so natural that it worked as if it was meant to be. No need to say I have no pictures, only the memories.

This wildlife encounter ranks among my most beautiful ever, not really because I could see the bears up close but mostly because I felt like a fitting piece in the grand scheme of things wild.

It was also on the PCT that I learnt to not fear rattlesnakes. I had met snakes before but never that many, that close and I guess that poisonous as I did in Southern California. One early encounter happened as I was hiking on trail when I heard a rattle just ahead. I was about to set foot on a snake that was cuddling right on the trail. The snake made an effort to warn me by moving and rattling, then I understood. Neither of us wanted a stomp to happen and it was the snake that took responsibility of avoidance. In my defense, snake and trail were roughly the same color so it was difficult for me to see it until it moved.

Snakes are for me more difficult than mammals to empathize with but they’re easy to respect. I consider it an ongoing task to respect them not for fear but for simple appreciation of their presence. I couldn’t, still cannot avoid tension at a snake’s sight but from that very encounter, I felt so much more relaxed at the prospect after seeing first hand that neither of us wanted conflict and both of us would do whatever it’d take to avoid it.

I like this way to see the world. It makes sense to me. So far it’s worked well.