The Right to Bears’ Farms: Bears on the WWC Campus
Watson Jones | April 20, 2023
If a bear looks bigger than the size of your thumb, then you’re too close.
Warren Wilson College (WWC) students and resident campus bear experts Freya Bairdsen and Tabitha McBrayer explained this “rule of thumb” to a group assembled to learn about proper bear protocol on April 19.
Almost every WWC student has a bear story — bears in Sage Circle, bears eating crabapples outside Sunderland, bears looting trash, etc. Bairdsen and McBrayer aim to educate interested students about how to safely coexist with our natural neighbors in a way that protects both bears and students.
For starters: “black bears are usually 10 to 15% carnivorous — the majority of their food is actually plant matter,” Bairdsen said. In short — the black bears we have on campus are not interested in eating students.
McBrayer stressed the importance of keeping bears afraid of humans in environments like the WWC campus that are surrounded by wild areas.
“The bottom line for bear safety on our campus is limiting bear-human interactions as much as possible — mostly for the safety of the bears,” McBrayer said. “We don't want the bears to become habituated to our campus, because if they become used to humans, they'll have to be euthanized, or removed and relocated.”
Excluding polar bears, the two species of bears that North American residents will encounter are black bears and grizzly bears. The first step when encountering a bear is identifying between these two species.
However, while this is a crucial skill “out west,” this is easy on the WWC campus; you will only ever run into black bears in the Swannanoa area.
If you ever did need to identify between the two, Bairdsen said the key factors that differentiate the two are the physical size, the shoulders and the shape of the nose. In addition to being significantly larger than our native black bear, grizzlies have a “big shoulder hump” that black bears lack and a nose shape that slopes down from the forehead in a curve.
Bears are most active in the spring and fall seasons during the dawn and dusk hours of the day, so hikers in the woods surrounding WWC should be more alert during these times.
If you encounter a black bear, the most important thing to remember is that in most situations they do not want to hurt you. For almost all encounters, the key strategy is to make yourself as large as possible (raise arms with backpacks, gather together if in a group, et cetera) and make loud noises while backing away. Do not run; this can trigger a pursuit reflex in bears and begin an unwinnable chase.
If this does not work, and the bear is extremely agitated, it may attempt a “mock charge,” where the animal will run at you full speed and stop within several feet of you as an intimidation tactic. If a bear mock charges you, it is once again very important not to turn and run, but instead stand your ground.
“Whatever happens, do not run away,” Bairdsen said. “You are not prey — the bear will believe you if you just act like you are not [prey]. That can be really scary.”
If a black bear stands up on its legs, it does not necessarily mean that the animal is startled, angry or preparing to fight.
“Sometimes it's to get a better smell on the breeze, and sometimes it's to get a better look at you — it doesn't mean that they're getting ready to really come at you,” Bairdsen said.
The primary situation in which a bear actually does want to hurt you is when cubs are involved.
“If you see cubs and you don’t see the mama bear, you leave,” McBrayer said. “I know they're really cute. But don't mess with the cubs. If there are cubs in the area, it usually means a mom is close behind and the mom is really defensive about her cubs. If you see a cub, it is best to go back where you came and keep a very, very long distance.”
If bears are aggravated, they often make a popping sound by opening and shutting their jaws, or they may growl or huff. These are all stress signals that hikers should be aware of.
The main things that people can do to prevent negative bear-human interaction are to make noise in natural areas to alert bears of your presence and to abstain from practices that draw them to populated human areas, like throwing compostable food on the ground near buildings or roads.
Also — leash your dog when out in nature. Off-leash dogs making bears afraid is one of the most common causes of bear aggression.
Students like McBrayer and Bairdsen and others at WWC are working to get the campus “BearWise certified” — a program that educates businesses, homeowners and community members on how to safely and ethically deal with bears.
The program has begun partnering with college campuses, certifying Lees McRae College. These students hope to make WWC the second college in the nation to become BearWise certified.
If you would like to become a “bear ambassador” on campus or are interested in further information, reach out to Bairdsen or McBrayer for details.