Some of you reading my last post surely picked up on the part where I said that yelling aggressively at a bear will cause it to leave “almost always.”
I’ve only not been able to scare a bear away once. There have been a few other times when I’ve had trouble scaring a bear away, but ultimately succeeded.
One late afternoon in 2000, I (with others) responded to a report of a bear near Upper Pines Campground. The bear, a large male I was quite familiar with at that point, hung out for a while near (but outside) the campground. So, we just kept an eye on him for a while. Eventually, the bear wandered some more and vanished. (Bears are surprisingly good at this.)
So, we all split up and went to various nearby places to see if we could find the bear again. I went to Lower Pines Campground and found the bear in the campground as he walked up to a locker and tried to open it, but it was latched, so he couldn’t. He went to the next locker, which wasn’t completely latched (see Smart Bear Tricks, part 3), and he opened it up and started dragging food out. When I tried to scare him away, he didn’t budge. When I tried harder, he got up from his meal and started walking toward me with what’s often called the “cowboy swagger.” At that point, early in my bear career, I hadn’t ever heard of this behavior, so I was unsure of what to do, other than back up. (We were within feet of each other.) While I had been bluff charged by this bear in previous encounter–to very close–this actually seemed scarier! So, he continued to eat, and I stood there helplessly watching… and waiting for the wildlife crew to show up.
Tales from Yosemite - Jeffrey Trust's Blog 
January 5, 2010 at 4:39 pm
when in doubt – the bear is at home and we are visitors – some people just don’t get it.
January 16, 2010 at 9:48 pm
Please do not recommend “bluffing” bears without also recommending people train themselves to “read” bear behavior. Although I am not an expert, years working in the woods and talking to others, leads me to believe that all bears have different personalities and good days and grumpy days. With some bears and some days, aggressive bluffing can get you killed. Things that shout watch out to me – cubs, huffing, and and clicking teeth. As always knowledge and situational awareness is important.
January 16, 2010 at 10:35 pm
While it’s true every bear has a different personality, and they have their good and bad days, my experience is that their reaction to someone acting aggressively is virtually always to leave. Some might bluff charge first, but death (or serious injury) is extremely unlikely, considering no one has ever been killed by a black bear in Yosemite (and, I believe, this is true throughout California).
There is, of course, always some risk, however.
January 20, 2010 at 10:03 pm
Don’t know about Yosemite but black bears have killed in California and will kill again. They have attacked people in Yosemite. I don’t want to be “just attacked” either. Acting aggressively around mothers with cubs or bears that have just woken after hibernation is high risk. This is not to say that you should run- also high risk. I base these comments on my run-ins with bears as well as my co-workers. Knowing when a bear means business is a judgment call. And you know good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment. I say respect the bear.