Bear Spray Fact Sheet

Prepared for the Outdoor Writers Association of Americas July, 2016 Conference in Billings, Montana, Gateway to Yellowstone National Park.

Bear spray has successfully saved both people and bears for the past 30 years in a variety of aggressive, charging and attacking situations. When used properly, there is no debate on its effectiveness on stopping aggressive, charging or attacking bears. Unfortunately, from the marketing of the first aerosol bear spray (Counter Assault) competitors, both legitimate and non-legitimate, have created an enormous amount of misleading information regarding what is or what isnt bear spray, how to properly use bear spray and when to use it. This is why we have provided this fact sheet for you to use when writing an article about or involving bear spray.

The Be Bear Aware Campaign monitored the research and development of bear spray and its effectiveness in the field stopping charging bears. This monitoring included the review of manufacture specifications and marketing. In addition, this process included reviewing bear behavior with bear management specialists with the National Park Service, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and State wildlife management agencies. The Be Bear Aware Campaign also monitored incidents reports, newspaper articles, and news reports regarding events where bear spray was deployed in confrontational situations with bears.

The Be Bear Aware Campaign were also retained by the Yellowstone subcommittee, part of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee to validate what was and was not bear spray, and to determine marketing information that may be inaccurate or misleading. To accomplish this they flew to Washington D.C. and met in person with the Environmental Protection Agency department that monitored bear spray and the marketing of bear spray. They also reviewed the information with the aerosol spray industry.

Research and Development of Bear Spray

The research and development of bear spray took place in the mid 1980s and the principal investigator was Carrie Hunt, a University of Montana graduate student working under supervision of Dr. Charles Jonkel and Dr. Bart OGara.

Assisting as a volunteer was Bill Pounds, the eventual Founder of Counter Assault bear spray and played an important part in developing the ingredients, the dispersal system, and the specifications of bear spray.

The research and development took place at Fort Missoula and included wild black and grizzly bears removed from forests and national park areas due to their dangerous and aggressive behavior. Their research also included free roaming bears in national parks and forests by bear management specialists working with the appropriate agencies.

What the research team learned was that pepper spray was unreliable and inconsistent. The pepper sprays they tested included police spray, military spray, and dog spray. They learned that pepper sprays were and continue to be not regulated and manufacturers can put whatever they want into the ingredients without and testing or agency regulations.

When Carrie Hunt and her team produced their own formulation and selected their own dispersal system that resulted in a powerful expanding cloud that sprayed for more than seven seconds, they found that it worked consistently on deterring aggressive, charging or attacking bears. The basic things they found in their new formulation and dispersal system is as follows:

The spray could be sprayed for 30+ feet as a powerful expanding cloud.

In a large can, it had spray duration of over 7 seconds.

By directing the spray in a downward direction in front of a charging bears, it would create a barrier between the person and the bear.

(Carrie Hunt led the research and development at the University of Montana. )Because of the powerful expanding cloud they did not have to specifically spray the face of the bear, but would simply need to spray downward in the bears direction. The bear would run through the cloud, affecting its eyes, ears, nose, and throat.

Helping Bear Spray Work

When carrying bear spray, you can help its effectiveness by being prepared. This includes using your mouth, eyes, nose, and ears. By simply calling out to bears while on the trail you can alert bears to your presence and prevent startling an unaware bears. Your nose can tell you a lot. A foul, pungent smell could indicate a dead animal nearby that bears may be feeding on. In this situation, bears would be highly defensive in protecting their meal. Your eyes need to be trained to identify bears in shadows, bushy areas, or around obstacles. In addition, be able to identify signs of bear activity such as the ones shown below. Your ears play an important role if a bear is in dense brush and is uncomfortable with how close you are, it may respond with a growl, clacking of the teeth or a huffing or hissing sound. Any of these indicators tell you to have your bear spray out and ready to use.

What is Bear Spray?

Bear spray is a powerful aerosol spray dispersed in an expanding, atomized cloud. The ingredients are capsaicin and related capsaicinoids. The amount varies between one and two percent active ingredient. Recommended bear spray qualifications are:

Size of can at least 7.9 ounces (225 Grams).

Spray duration of at least 7 seconds (Be Bear Aware campaign recommendation).

Spray distance of a minimum of 25 feet or greater.

The active ingredient capsaicin related capsaicinoids, which are inflammatory irritants, affecting the bears eyes, nose, mouth, ears and soft tissues of the lungs.

All bear spray must be reviewed and registered with the Environmental Protection Agency. The ingredients may not be altered or changed without the approval of the EPA. In order to be considered and sold as bear spray, it must follow all of the EPA registration and review policies. Only bear spray is allowed to use the word bear in its marketing and labeling.

What isnt Bear Spray?

Pepper spray is not bear spray. Pepper spray is a generic term covering numerous products that may contain different types of pepper or other ingredients not found in bear spray. It may have an ineffective dispersal system; it may spray in a stream instead of a powerful, expanding cloud. Pepper spray may also come in small, palm-sized cans with insufficient distance and duration. The formulation can be changed at any given time and may not properly match what is on the label and there is no testing to determine whether it will stop a charging bear. The EPA does not monitor pepper sprays; they are not supposed to be referred to as bear spray.

The misinformation about bear spray resulted from marketing program that bypassed the EPAs strict registration program and requirements. Many of these marketing programs were simply making a label that claimed to deter charging or attacking bears. These labels were then placed on cans that had pepper ingredients in them with no research and development or review from the EPA. All such products have now been pulled from the market by the EPA.

The quality of the solvents and propellants was questionable. Compounding this problem was the marketing on these cans were that of a generic pepper spray used for personal protection, not bear protection. The instructions for the use of these unknown sprays did not correlate with the proper use of deterring a bear. Often, they emphasized waiting till a bear was within 12 feet and to spray the bear directly in the face (eyes, nose, and mouth), whereas bear spray is dispersed in a powerful, expanding cloud, placing a barrier between you and the bear. Trying to aim your spray at a bear charging within 12 feet could result in the bear making contact. The EPAs registration program eliminated many of these misleading manufacturers from the marketplace.

Learn to Properly Deploy Bear Spray

1. Make sure when buying bear spray and a holster, that you have bought actual bear spray and not a generic pepper spray.

2. Practice removing your bear spray from the holster, holding the can firmly, putting your thumb in front of the safety clip and pulling back.

3. Practice directing the bear spray downward so it billows up in front of an imaginary bear.

The Be Bear Aware Campaign, using 100 inert training canisters, asked hunters, hikers, and campers to demonstrate how they would use bear spray. Those that had no firearm experience did not hold the can firmly, resulting in the can tilting upwards and spraying over the top of the perceived bear. Other inexperienced people tried the get the safety clip off by pushing downward on it instead of putting their thumb in front of the safety clip and pulling back. Hunters tended to spray when the bear was too far away (100 plus feet) meaning the bear and the cloud would not meet 30 feet in front of you. Also hunters tried to aim the bear spray instead of directing the powerful expanding cloud in front of the bear. This resulted in valuable lost time allowing the bear to close in. There was a time period when bear spray was reported to not work. When we researched this, we found people were spraying over the bear, spraying too early or too late; these are the reasons why bear spray was reported not to work.

Individuals that were mauled using bear spray made at least one of the following mistakes:

1. Had not practiced taking it out of the holster

2. Did not know their thumb went in front of the safety clip to pull it off

3. Did not hold the can firmly, causing the can to tilt up and spray in front of the bear

4. Waited until the bear was close enough to spray it in the eyes, nose and mouth, not allowing the powerful, expanding cloud to do its job (practice!).