If you’re hiking alone in the woods, and you come upon a bear (or the bear comes upon you...), and the bear starts coming after you, what do you do?
- Stand still and hope he doesn’t hurt you
- Pick up the biggest rocks that you can throw accurately,
and throw them at his head
- Shoot him in the face repeatedly with your BB gun
- Run away and hope you can outrun him
- Some combination of the above
- Something else entirely
I’m curious to hear what anyone thinks would maximize the chances of survival in this situation. Note that the constraints are fixed as I’ve explained them above; you are alone, you have just a BB gun, and whatever else you might find in the woods (rocks, etc).
Posted by Anthony on May16, 2004 | 6 replies Filed under: General
If you define cowardice as running away at the first sign of danger, screaming and tripping and begging for mercy, then yes, Mister Brave Man, I guess I am a coward.
I would probably stay still, and wait. Unless, the bear starts chewing my arm off. Hopefully he’ll move away and keep his distance. Then I’d run. Lets just hope I’m not confronted by a bear anytime soon...
To maximize survival, I would confront the bear if it was just approaching me. I would turn towards the bear, but slowly walk backwards to maintain distance.
If the bear was running, I would run. Fully grown bears cannot climb trees, but they can rock them to make you fall out. I realize you cannot outrun a bear, but he might lose interest.