Sask. man did 'everything you're supposed to do' in bear encounter

A Saskatchewan photographer did the right thing when he encountered a bear in Prince Albert National Park, Brennen Closson says.

“He did basically everything you’re supposed to do. He kept himself square to the bear. He kept himself upright and tall and he paid attention to what was going on,” said Closson, a salesperson from Ebs’ Source for Adventure and an avid outdoorsman.

Brennen Closson demonstrates how to safely use the bear spray he sells at Eb’s Source for Adventure. (Carla Shynkaruk/CTV Saskatoon)

Curtis Matwishyn told CTV News earlier this week that he happened upon the bear near the Waskesiu townsite in the park and ended up spraying it to escape. He filmed the close call.

Closson, who sells a lot of bear spray at this store, said paying attention to things like your footing, your pathway out and wind direction is key.

People should also realize how potent the bear spray is and be careful using it, he said.

“You want to have the wind at your back because if it's blowing in your face, and you spray a bear, it’s going to blow into your face and you’re going to spray yourself and give the bear an easy target,” he says.

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While you don’t want to accidentally discharge it in a panic it also needs to be at the ready, he said.

“You have to be able to get to it right away when you need it because the bear is not going to wait for you to go to the bottom of your bag and get your bear spray out,” he said.

Douglas Clark, who researchers bear/human conflict at the University of Saskatchewan, said some studies indicate the spray doesn’t always deter black bears compared to grizzly bears long term if the animal is too accustomed to humans.

“With grizzly bears, if they’re charging you, bear spray will break the charge with very high reliability because it will just go off and do something else. With black bears, the studies don’t show such a clean effect,” Clark says.

Black bears being sprayed have likely been habituated to humans so they have a much greater motivation to approach people whom they associate with food, he said.

Bronwyn Craig, the project coordinator at Prince Albert National Park, said in an email statement that the park has a healthy black bear population and the park has received a wide range of reports and sightings this year as bears become more active in the spring.

"However, there is no evidence of an increase in negative bear encounters. There has never been a documented physical human-bear attack in Prince Albert National Park.”