If a grizzly bear attacks you, your response depends on one critical distinction: whether the bear is defending itself or hunting you. In the vast majority of grizzly encounters, the bear is acting defensively, and the correct response is to play dead. In the rare case of a predatory attack, you fight back with everything you have. Knowing the difference can save your life.
Why Knowing the Bear Matters
The survival strategy for a grizzly attack is the opposite of what works for a black bear, so correct identification is the first step. Grizzly bears have a prominent muscular hump between their front shoulders, visible even from a distance. Their claws are long (two to four inches), gently curved, and often light-colored. Black bears lack the shoulder hump and have shorter, sharply curved, dark claws typically under two inches.
Color alone is unreliable. Grizzlies range from blonde to nearly black, and black bears can be brown or cinnamon. Focus on the shoulder hump, the face profile (grizzlies have a concave, dish-shaped face), and claw length if you’re close enough to notice.
Defensive Attacks: Play Dead
Most grizzly attacks are defensive. The bear has been startled, is protecting cubs, or is guarding a food source. It sees you as a threat and wants to neutralize that threat, not eat you. Your goal is to convince the bear you’re no longer dangerous.
Here’s the exact technique recommended by the National Park Service:
- Drop to the ground face down. Lay flat on your stomach.
- Protect your neck. Interlace your fingers and place your hands on the back of your neck. Your arms should shield the sides of your head.
- Spread your legs apart. This makes it harder for the bear to flip you over.
- Keep your backpack on. It provides a layer of protection for your back and torso.
- Stay completely still and silent. Do not scream, struggle, or fight back. You are trying to show the bear that the threat is over.
Once the bear stops making contact, do not get up immediately. The bear may still be nearby, watching. Wait several minutes until you are certain it has left the area. Getting up too soon can trigger a second attack.
Predatory Attacks: Fight Back
Predatory grizzly attacks are rare, but they happen. In this scenario, the bear is not reacting to a surprise or defending anything. It has identified you as food. Playing dead here is the worst thing you can do.
A predatory bear looks different from a defensive one. You may be aware of it for an extended period before it approaches. It will appear intensely interested in you and deliberately move toward you. Critically, it will not show stress behaviors like moaning, woofing, jaw popping, or swatting the ground with its paws. A defensive bear is agitated and loud. A predatory bear is calm and focused.
If you recognize predatory behavior, make yourself as large as possible. Stand your ground and do not back away. Yell in a loud, firm voice. Use anything available as a weapon: rocks, branches, hiking poles, a knife. Aim for the bear’s face and nose. Use bear spray if you have it. This is a fight for your life, and aggression is your only option.
Bear Spray Is Your Best Tool
Bear spray is more effective than firearms at stopping a charging bear. A study of 72 bear encounters in Alaska where people used bear spray found it stopped undesirable behavior more than 90% of the time. Only three people were injured, all with relatively minor wounds. By comparison, firearms stopped bear attacks only 77% of the time, and bears still inflicted injuries in 56% of incidents where guns were used.
Bear spray works partly because it creates a broad, expanding cloud rather than requiring precise aim under extreme stress. EPA-registered bear sprays shoot a minimum of 25 feet and last at least 6 seconds, enough to cover multiple charges or account for wind. To use it effectively, remove the safety clip, aim slightly downward toward the approaching bear, and spray in a wide, sweeping motion. Start spraying when the bear is within 30 to 40 feet so it runs into the expanding cloud.
Carry bear spray in a holster on your chest or hip, not buried in your pack. In a charge, you will have seconds to react. A grizzly can cover ground at roughly 35 miles per hour, faster than any human can sprint.
How to Avoid an Attack in the First Place
Most grizzly encounters happen because the bear didn’t know you were coming. The single most effective prevention strategy is making noise as you hike. Talk loudly, clap your hands, call out, or sing, especially near streams, dense brush, berry patches, and areas with limited visibility. Wind and running water can mask your sounds, so be louder in those conditions. Bear bells are not effective, according to Parks Canada. Your voice carries better and signals “human” more clearly.
If you spot a grizzly at a distance, keep at least 100 meters (roughly the length of a football field) between you and the bear. Slowly back away while speaking in calm, low tones. Never run. Running can trigger a chase instinct, and you cannot outrun a grizzly. Avoid direct eye contact, which bears can interpret as a challenge, but keep the bear in your peripheral vision as you retreat.
If a Grizzly Charges
Not every charge ends in contact. Bears frequently bluff charge, running toward you and veering off at the last moment. This is terrifying, but the correct response is to hold your ground. Running almost guarantees the bear will chase you.
If you have bear spray, deploy it during the charge when the bear closes to within about 30 feet. If the bear makes contact, immediately drop into the play-dead position described above, unless you’ve identified predatory behavior. The vast majority of grizzly charges and attacks are defensive, and playing dead ends most of them within seconds once the bear decides you’re no longer a threat.
If the bear continues to attack for a prolonged period while you’re playing dead, or if it begins to bite and feed, the attack has shifted from defensive to predatory. At that point, switch strategies and fight back as aggressively as you can.