How to behave when encountering a bear

Varvara Belousova gives us more detailed advice on how to behave in the presence of bears: Before entering dense cedar bushes or walking through tall grass, you should call out “U-ru-ru” so that the bear hears you and goes another way. Sometimes it can recognize us from a distance by our smell. Then it watches us and understands that we are humans. Once, while picking cloudberries, we watched a bear eagerly catching fish and tearing them apart. It was so interesting that we completely forgot about picking until one of us coughed. The bear heard us because he has very good ears and looked over at us as if to warn us: “What are you looking at?” – until he finally trotted off. Only after he had gone did we stand up. Because they say: “You should never be the first to leave but wait until the bear has gone away. If you meet a bear, you should stop immediately where you are, because there’s no point in running away anyway. And then you should look at the bear and say, “You are an animal, you have a different path than I do, go there, but I have nowhere to run and will just stay here.” And don't leave while he's still running away, only when he’s gone.

Koryak text with translations