Bear Spray Is Not a Shield. It’s a Last Resort.

As a scientist who studies human-bear conflict and one of the hosts of Tooth and Claw Podcast, I have a deep appreciation for bear spray and the difference it has made in our relationship with bears. Prior to its creation and widespread use, people who found themselves in a scary situation with an angry, surprised, or defensive bear had limited options for escaping one of humanity’s most primal and ancient nightmares. Bear spray has given us a relatively easy to use and extremely effective tool for deterring everything from a too-curious black bear in your campsite to an enraged mother grizzly.

In recent years, however, as more and more people enter bear country with spray on their hip, an unintended and somewhat concerning trend is emerging; people armed with bear spray and phones or cameras are getting far too close to bears in order to get a better photo or story to take home. Having a deterrent that has been touted as the perfect bear-stopper has bred false confidence. That’s dangerous for both humans and bears.

First and foremost, outdoor recreationists should know that bear spray is not a perfect deterrent. Do I, and most of my bear biologist colleagues, firmly believe it is the best deterrent we have? Without a doubt. But there are cases where a bear is angry enough, or there is enough momentum in its charge, that bear spray does not immediately stop it. In these instances, a human can get pretty chewed-up before the bear decides to leave. One of the big factors in determining which encounters end safely and which result in an injury is distance.

To understand why distance is so important, it helps to understand how bear spray actually works. When you remove the safety and depress the trigger on a can of bear spray, an aerosolized mix of capsaicin, oil, and propellant leaves the can. In good wind and rain conditions, that spray will reach out about 20 to 30 feet in front of you, creating a small cloud of irritant that slowly rises and stays suspended in the air. Think of it as building a wall between you and the bear that it will be forced to pass through if it wants to continue its charge. Stinging, choking, and blinding air is something that bears, unsurprisingly, feel very uncomfortable with, and is almost always enough to convince a bear that’s trying to fight to choose flight instead. In an ideal scenario, you want to deploy your spray when the bear is about 30 feet away and moving toward you.

People approaching a bear within a couple dozen feet surrender the ability to use bear spray the way it has been proven to work best. Bears that are used to a certain suite of behaviors in humans often don’t feel comfortable being approached by the thing that never approaches them. Plus, bears are so quick that even if the safety is off on your spray, you may not hit the trigger in time to properly deploy the spray before a bear approaches.

In some recent case studies involving close encounters with bears, the victim was only able to deploy their spray at close range; while the spray ultimately did stop the encounter, the bear made contact and left lifelong physical and emotional scars. A bear teaching you a five-second lesson is something that can easily change the trajectory of the rest of your life. So, while bear spray is an incredible tool for human safety and is a great deterrent for both sudden and not-so-sudden encounters, it works most effectively when the user has both adequate time and distance. Hikers surrender both of those when they approach a bear to impress their friends or take a photo.

Another important consideration is the bear’s well-being. Being sprayed is really god awful, as anyone who has been on the wrong end of an accidentally discharged can will testify. The capsaicin, or pepper part of the spray, is attached to tiny droplets of oil, which quickly and firmly attach to mucous membranes on your eyes, sinuses, nose, and throat. While bears are much more robust animals than humans, being sprayed is a uniquely scary experience. All of the senses bears use to navigate the world are suddenly overwhelmed by burning pepper. While it will do no lasting damage, that animal is going to feel some pain, fear, and stress. If you end up needing to spray a bear that you approached so you could get a photo or a story, you’ve unnecessarily caused an animal a great deal of stress.

Finally, even if nothing else goes wrong, getting too close to a bear may further habituate it. Many bears in our national parks and heavily-used outdoor spaces have gotten used to having humans around in certain areas and situations. But that habituation comes with goalposts, and when we alter them, bears can quickly adapt and learn.

For example, in national parks like Yellowstone, visitors are required to stay at least 100 yards from bears at all times. Over the years that those rules have been in place, bears have grown accustomed to a buffer distance from the throngs of visitors and photographers. When people start approaching bears at close distances, the behaviors we “expect” from bears often change as they are experiencing unexpected behavior from humans as well. The worst-case outcome to a close approach is a mauling. The more likely—and still bad—scenario is that the bear gets another data point teaching it not to be wary of humans. A highly habituated bear that’s used to being near people may enter campgrounds, damage property, and ultimately lose its life.

We are fortunate to live in a time where over a century of bear conservation efforts have created robust populations of black bears in open spaces throughout the country, and we are seeing grizzly bears make an incredible comeback in some of their traditional range. Bear spray is a conservation tool and has played a part in the increase of the overall health of bear populations, in that it gives us a non-lethal way to stop dangerous bear behavior. It’s a deterrent that—when used properly—usually allows both human and bear to leave the encounter with their lives. But its purpose is to save your life, not to be a shield that grants you up-close access to a powerful and unpredictable animal. For your own good, and for the good of bears everywhere, use bear spray responsibly and ethically.