When NOT to run

Well, it appears that when a bear attacks you, it’s a bad time to run. This week there has been a report of a camper in Yellowstone National Park, who woke up to find a bear gnawing on her.

When screaming seemed to agitate the bear even more, she decided to play dead.  According to the report “Her determination to stay calm and fight panic proved critical to her survival”.

I had heard this kind of thing before. A while back we went on a game drive while visiting a South African game reserve.  It was a cool, misty morning and coming around a corner, we saw a small pride of lions sitting down to their breakfast – a fresh kill. It wasn’t the sight of the event, rather than the sounds of breaking bones and tearing flesh, which were so disturbing.

That evening we were discussing the day’s sightings with the game rangers who had taken us on the drive. Somebody voiced the concern that the lions had been awfully close to us – especially considering the open vehicle we had been travelling in. Which prompted the one game ranger to tell us what not to do in the case of a lion (or in fact any big cat) confrontation. The big tip was: DO NOT RUN! This would apparently just awaken the lion’s instinct to chase . . . and lions can actually run quite fast. And climb trees if they have to. What you’re supposed to do, is to stand as tall as possible, and make a lot of noise. As in “BACK   OFF   KITTY!!!”?!

I am not sure I would be able to speak, let alone make a lot of noise, if I bumped into a lion one day. I would probably faint i.e. look like I was playing dead. And I’m not so sure that that would work with a lion. It would probably just think “Ah, a stationary snack”!