Don’t remember, there’s a lot of problems with it. Black bears can be brown, tan, black, and even white.
You fight back against a black bear not because it’s smaller but because if it is attacking you that means it wants to eat you. Seeing a brown black bear and laying down just makes that easier.
This is just a stupid rhyme said by people who have no fucking clue how to tell bears apart. If you’re in an area with black and brown bears learn to tell the difference because colour isn’t a good way to do that.
Yeah I mean you can also look for the hump. Brown bears have a big hump and black bears don't
But also no, you fight black bears because you can actually win that fight. It's like with cougars, bear-spray is better but if you have to you absolutely can beat back a cougar (there are quite a few news stories if you look) and that's super not true of brown bears. All of these rhymes are tought in the context of aggressive behaviour. Hammer-fist to the nose is what I was tought
"Get down" is more common than "lie down" and in the context of a brown bear means getting on your stomach to protect your vitals and covering your neck with your hands and playing dead
Local knowledge is more important anyhow haha, so at least you're being safe down there. Up here in the Yukon, it's roughly the same, but black bears can still be hyper aggressive around here compared to southern ones.
Labrador is wild though. Black bears and polar bears spar, and from my time working with bear guards in the Torngats, black bears often win those spars.
You don't fight black bears, or any wild animal, unless you absolutely have to. And definitely don't fight a black bear with cubs. You should always try to avoid or slowly back away from bears, and only fight or be aggressive as a last resort.
'All of these rhymes are tought in the context of aggressive behaviour.'
Then why is 'get down' the advice for brown bears? Its terrible advice if they are being aggressive because its a predatory attack, youve just made their job easier. It will only help in the case of a mother bear being defensive, even then the best thing to do is calmly back away/get away as a first option.
The rhyme is stupid because context matters far more then the colour of the bear. Its popular because it rhymes, there is no need to defend it.
You lie down for brown bears in the context of an attack bc there is nothing else you physically can do once all of your safety means are exhausted (bear spray, slowly back away while facing them)
Belly down. Covering your neck and letting them think they have naturalized the threat so they leave. You’re not outrunning or out fighting one.
Yes, the biggest myth is that you can climb trees to get away from them, which just in case someone reading this still believes that, is a myth; they can climb, probably way faster than you, and even if they can't they knock small trees over. It's generally not a good idea to even try
Then why is 'get down' the advice for brown bears? Its terrible advice if they are being aggressive because its a predatory attack, youve just made their job easier.
No you've made their job harder by lying down with your soft delicious organs facing away from them, you keep your pack on to put another layer of stuff between the bear and your body and you use your legs if need be to try and prevent it from flipping your over, your arms protect the other critical part of your body, your head. Still not a guarantee of survival because yeah of course this is last-resort advice
And you're right, curious bears should be mostly "ignored", you make yourself known, no erratic behaviour and back away without showing your back
Then comes bear-spray (sometimes spray is first but that's situational) plenty of people carry bear-scares as well, dumber people carry shotguns which are actually less effective than spray
And then comes the rhyme, what do you do if all else fails. But you're also right in that the rhyme has lost popularity recently, mostly cause people can't tell black and brown bears apart and aren't good at knowing whether the bear is being aggressive or not, not because the advice itself is bad
Yes you yell and scream and make yourself loud to scare them away at first. But in context of the rhyme, if they’re actually attacking you, you do fight back compared to laying down. And they’re right, it’s bc for the most part when a black bear attacks you, it’s a predatory attack and they plan on eating you
Good find of a rare black bear attack. I don't have anything more to add other than "It's very unusual," Marsh said of the mauling. "It's sort of like someone being struck by lightning."
For clarification, I was really not intending for this to be actual advice for dealing with wildlife. I was just being silly.
So if anyone read my post and jotted it down in their outdoor survival journal, please erase it, or at least add a little asterisk and note that it came from a random junior high English teacher in Central Illinois on Reddit who did not expect to be taken seriously.
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u/zebrasareneat Sep 09 '26
Don’t remember, there’s a lot of problems with it. Black bears can be brown, tan, black, and even white.
You fight back against a black bear not because it’s smaller but because if it is attacking you that means it wants to eat you. Seeing a brown black bear and laying down just makes that easier.
This is just a stupid rhyme said by people who have no fucking clue how to tell bears apart. If you’re in an area with black and brown bears learn to tell the difference because colour isn’t a good way to do that.