communication

Bears communicate with people by posturing and vocalizing in the same manner they do with other bears. Unfortunately for bears, few people understand their language and very often misread every gesture and sound - merely standing up to better see what has caught the bear’s attention or simple moans of fear - is interpreted as aggressive behaviour.

When nervous or feeling stressed, bears may pop their jaws, purse their lips, snort, blow or huff loudly; swat the ground or a tree and/or may lunge or charge in order to display their discomfort. In an attempt to get you to leave, they may rush toward you and abruptly come to a stop, while snorting and slapping the ground.

These behaviours are communication, not aggression nor an attack. However, failing to heed a bear’s warnings could drastically change the outcome of an encounter.

VOCALIZATIONS

Bears communicate with both body language and vocalizations. They are usually fairly quiet in nature but may make a variety of grunts in amiable situations. Cubs make a low reverberating sound when they are feeding or a loud ‘screaming’ type sound when they are nervous. When protecting a food source, bears create a pulsing rising woo, woo, woo, woo sound. Bears blow and clack their teeth or moan when they are afraid. Bears do not growl or roar but have unfortunately been depicted as doing so in movies or children’s stories. Vocalizations. < Listen to bear sounds. To give you a warning a bear may do a stiff legged ‘cowboy’ walk, make huffing sounds, exhibit a lot of bluster or charge.

BODY LANGUAGE

When a bear charges, it is a display meant to communicate that it does not like what you are doing and that you need to back off. Rub or marking trees are the ursine version of a calling card, a ‘who’s who’ in the area and can communicate to other bears either to stay away or come hither. Both male and female bears urinate to make others aware of their presence; a tuft of long hair at the end of their genitals helps guide the flow. By grinding and twisting their feet into the ground while ‘cowboy’ walking, bears make use of the scent glands in their feet to announce their presence.