Photo via YouTube
For those curious as to whether you can reason with a bear, this video should illustrate rather nicely how that might go.
Mary Maley, who was hoping to go from Alaska's Ketchikan to Petersburg without incident, uploaded the following video to YouTube (h/t CBS News).
It features a curious bear, a shot of pepper spray and a deluge of the word "bear" performed in the key of high-pitched screaming.
Now we have to say that the video is surprisingly SFW. We are shocked only because seeing a bear at the close proximity deserves at least a few nicely placed expletives.
Instead, Maley decides to have a one-way conversation with this bear that she so cleverly refers to as "Bear."
Turn down the volume accordingly:
Now humor aside, close encounters with local wildlife, as beautiful as they may seem, are an extremely dangerous and possibly deadly enterprise, as TravelPulse's Patrick Clarke reports.
In this case, Maley was left unscathed, save a badly butchered kayak. But we have to offer that if you see a bear, you should leave the kayak and seek safety, which was possibly a cabin nearby in Maley's case.
Here is what she had to say via YouTube: "During a solo kayak trip, intended to go from from Ketchikan, Alaska to Petersburg, Alask, (sic) a bear attacked my kayak. This incident occurred outside of a US Forest Service cabin in Berg Bay, Wrangell District, Alaska. I had just carried my tent, food, and all my gear into the cabin to dry while I went on a 4 mile hike that begins just behind the cabin. I heard something outside as I ate my lunch, and well, I never got to go on that hike."
Maley continues with some specifics: "This video is taken 5 minutes after the attack began, he continued to gnaw on it for another 5 or 10 after the video ends. Shortly after the bear left and I drug the kayak back to the cabin door step. Then I swam to the S/V anchored in the bay. They did not have their radio on and I feared I would be stranded! The German flagged S/v Caledonia took me and my things to Wrangell where I am trying to repair my kayak now."
It's a harrowing experience to be sure. And it seems Maley had protection in the form of pepper spray, but we hardly think sticking around to plead with a bear that maybe lacking in ESL skills is a good idea.
Thankfully, Maley finally go to a safe place where she could regroup and fix her bearly (wink) eaten kayak.
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