Hello all. I am in California and we are having a huge problem with black bears coming down to lower elevations to look for food. They have been on everyone’s roof tops eating acorns the last few nights. I was always curious if a strobe would scare away a bear. Tonight I got the chance to test out that theory.
I was using a Fenix PD35 TAC from about 30 feet away. First I shined the light on the black bear on turbo for about 30 seconds and he just stared at me. Then I shined the strobe on him for about 30 seconds. He was not scared at all and stared right at the light, but then he began to snort and swat the air in front of him. I quickly learned a strobe does not scare away bears, but it does piss them off. Just wanted to pass along this info.
Here is a pic of the bear from a couple nights ago:
Thank you for the welcome. Yep. I am 30 miles east of Visalia. I have read they are blaming the drought for the surge in bear activity, but I also believe the Rough Fire may be another reason for moving them down to these elevations which is about 1000 feet here. We have always had bears here, but never this many. It is out of control.
Come to think about it, I actually moved from Porterville to Palm Desert last year, and East Porterville keeps on making the news because all the wells are drying up.
Wow, nice shot there! I guess it makes sense that they’re not scared off by a flashlight, since I seem to remember reading that bears have poor eyesight. Although I also read that they are generally scared of humans, and that’s obviously not so true anymore.
Yes we are on well water, but about 100 feet from a spring fed river and have had no problems yet. The next worry is if El Nino comes true we could be looking at worse flooding than in January 1998 when the rising water level was just on the borderline of doing damage to the house.
I haven’t tried it on dogs. I just figured the strobe would scare away pretty much any animal and it seems to do the opposite. A can of bear spray is on my list to buy for when I go for walks at night due to all the creatures around here looking for their next meal. The bears are not usually a threat at all. It’s the mountain lions you need to worry about.
Read a forum post along time ago. People were chiming in on what caliber bullet it would take to put a grizzly down. Most were very knowledgeable. One man said his 9mm would do the trick. Others laughed at him. Most said NO WAY! He said he guaranteed the 9mm would get rid of the problem- just turn it on yourself
