“Now was this a charge? No, not really, as a charge is generally considered here in Alaska an encounter where a bear runs at you with intent.”
This hair-raising encounter with a grizzly up at Jaques Adventure Lodge in Alaska is not actually considered a charge by the experts as the bear unintentionally ran into someone and wasn’t targeting. If you watch close, you can see bear looking over his shoulder and watching behind him the entire time. FULL EXPLANATION BELOW:
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Okay, guys, so here is an exciting encounter with a bear and one of our apprentice guides that might seem dramatically different once explained. So, the blond apprentice guide you see here sees a bear running at him and correctly steps to the side of the trail, readies his bear spray, and even starts to warn the bear of his presence verbally. You’ll notice that he goes through all the correct protocols despite the stress he’s experiencing. All of this is great and conducive to the best possible outcome, something we look for in a guide candidate. With everything I’ve said, you might say to yourself, “Well, it sounds like he handled this charge well,” and you know I would generally agree with that statement, excepting, of course, the fact that this grizzly was running away from something else. Now make no mistake, a bear running away from something is far, far more likely to trample you, or nock you out of the way, or even run into you and become aggressive than you might think.
What you may not see is the bear looking over his shoulder and watching behind him the entire time. This behavior indicates that whatever is behind him is driving his behavior. A big bore was actually outside the border of the video the whole time doing what we call “pushing” behavior where the large boar uses his body language and feromones to intimidate the young subadults and run them off. This behavior is expected in many of Alaska’s coastal and inland areas, where there are dense populations of brown bears that subsist off of an annual salmon run.
Now was this a charge? No, not really, as a charge is generally considered here in Alaska an encounter where a bear runs at you with intent. This was a bear nearly unintentionally running into someone and not a bear targeting and charging. Our apprentice stayed reasonably calm and took proper precautions, and avoided a potentially dangerous situation. Remember that every guide is constantly learning, and no one is perfect guys, so stay safe and don’t forget to like and subscribe for more content! It was a great learning experience for our apprentice and something we are lucky he was able to experience and learn from.