Black Bear

For Throwback Thursday, I'm going to talk about my only known [1] encounter with a bear. Somewhat oddly, it occurred at work. At the time - the summer of 2015 - I was working up in New Providence at the Murray Hill location of Alcatel-Lucent. 

I liked to go for a walk after lunch, and my walk would go through a small, wooded area. One day I was walking along, and I heard something stirring off to the side of the path. It sounded like something biggish, but I wasn't worried (initially) since there were a crapload of deer to be found in the area.

So when I looked over and saw a Black Bear staring at me, I suddenly became alarmed. Here's my recollection of the event:

1. The bear and I were both very aware of each other.
2. I was trying to remember what to do in this situation [2].
1. I knew enough not to run. Bears can run 35 mph, and running can trigger a chase reflex in bears.
2. I think I heard that you shouldn't look them straight in the eyes since that could be construed as a challenge, but you should let the bear know you're aware of them.
3. There might have been a stick or largish rock around, but there weren't a lot of weapon options.
4. I was hoping other people were around since I think bears are less comfortable attacking a group, but nobody was in sight.
5. "Make yourself big." There was nothing on the trail I could hop on to appear bigger.
3. I remembered that you should guess where the bear wanted to go, and to move in the opposite direction of that while still looking in the general direction of the bear.
4. I sideways-walked to my left, and the bear took that as an excellent opening to head off to my right.
5. The bear didn't exactly run, though it put distance between us pretty quickly. I only got a couple pictures before the bear disappeared from sight.

I kind of wonder if the bear and I might have been thinking approximately the same thing: "Is this guy going to cause trouble for me?".

The next day I thought to go back (AFAIK the bear was not around) and pace off approximately where we both were. I'd estimate that the bear and I had been about 50 feet/16 meters from each other. It was a respectful distance, but 1 the bear could have closed pretty quickly if it wanted to.

Although scary, it's hard to believe I was in dire danger. This bear was in an area with quite a few people, and if it was of a mind to attack humans, it probably would have run afoul of the authorities before this day.

August 17, 2015 at Murray Hill
Photo 5502580, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

[1] It's possible that bears have occasionally seen me without me seeing them. Occasionally I've heard a snort or grunt that I couldn't identify ...

[2] These are Black Bear strategies. If Grizzly Bears were in this area, they'd probably require a different strategy.