I think we should put Ivan and a polar bear in a cage and find out.

I would fight a bear before I laid down and played dead. It would probably get me killed, but goddamn it, I'm not food.

not yet.

Also, the play dead trick ... I've seen (docos of) polar bears scavenging. Like, months old rotting rancid whale carcass. Does the play dead trick work with polars?

With non-polar bears, I reckon if Jim stood up tall and wide and roared a bit, there's fair chance a bear would back off. Predators can often be quite wary in choosing prey. Unless they're really hungry. Which they often are. Especially bears, what with that hibernation and all.

Ok, Jim, if you get attacked by a bear, the first thing you must do is look around to see if there are any berries about.

Big Browns and Grizzles, try to play dead.
Blacks, fight like hell.
Polars, you're fucked.

whs

Why are polar bears so aggressive as to eat man meat? They are descendants of the Brown bear; maybe it's just too slim pickings up there for them.

Oh, it's just undernourished, you see. As in, hungry. So don't worry, after the polar bear mauls you, we know for sure that it will also eat you, and won't just leave you lying there as a message to the rest of us. It's not a complete bastard--they use every part of the human, you know.

"Some times you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you."

And then there's Grizzly Man


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grizzly_Man
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427312/

yeah, that guy was crazy.

You know, they say the jungle gets to people; I think any isolated wild place will eventually drive a person mad, bad or insane. Heart of Darkness stuff.

I heard there was video of the bear attacking him but of course it's never been shown.

I saw video of a 'trained' bear who killed a guy who just wanted his pic taken with the bear---the guy made an unexpected move and the bear looks like he hardly touched him but he killed him. Was v. sad and sorry---the guy was the cousin of the 'bear trainer'-----this particular bear was in a Will Ferrell movie...can't recall the name....

There's audio of the killing. The guy dropped the camera. The bear ate him and his GF. And it was a sickly, malnourished bear who failed to put on enough weight and go into hibernation when all the other bears did. It was desperate.

Yikes.


I guess Stephen Colbert is right. The number one threat to America is - bears

This discussion doesn't help my phobia at all, you know.

Just sayin' ....

It's not phobia of it is rational.


Now, drop bears, you don't even want to hear about...

At last, science has discovered why Polar Bears are so dangerous... they're Irish. :p: