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Grizzly bear
A Wapiti man is charged by three large grizzlies at once, and he survived. Larry Dickerson said he also taught the bears a lesson they won't soon forget.

This is the time of year that grizzly bears are just out of their dens, and very hungry. That's why Wyoming's Game and Fish Department is holding bear seminars to keep people safe in bear country. That's most of Northwest Wyoming.

Biologists say grizzlies are not necessarily forest animals. They evolved in open grassy areas, like this right behind me. So, they could be found in a lot of places in Northwest Wyoming where people don't expect to find them."

But, Larry Dickerson is not surprised to find grizzlies anywhere near his home. He's encountered them many times in Alaska, and Wyoming. He took the Alaskan grizzly on his wall with a wooden bow.

He faced three charging bears while horn hunting in the back country April 3rd.


Retired biologist Larry Dickerson said, "I looked up to see a bear above me and to my right about sixty yards."

Dickerson reached under his jacket to pull his bear spray.

He said, "She was coming down loping quickly to me."

Then, Dickerson realized she was not alone.

He recalled, "Following her were two two year old cubs that were almost the size of this female."

He was having a hard time getting the safety trigger off with one hand, and the sow was threatening only 25 feet away.

He explained, "She started bouncing on her front feet, which is an aggressive display of a bear. Popping her teeth."

Then he caught a break. He said, "And then there was a very strong crosswind blowing, maybe 25 miles per hour. It was a very windy day.

He said, 'And she walked straight dead downwind of me."

He saw his opening, and hit her with the bear spray. He says she spun, then something surprising happened.

He said, "And bear poop flew out of her butt three feet. And she just started back towards where she had come from."

Dickerson says she ran away and took her big cubs with her. He thinks he taught the bear a lesson that she won't forget.

He explained, "I'm hopeful this particular bear, and hopeful her two-year-olds that learn from momma will react totally different from when they see a human, or encounter a human, that bear will leave."

Dickerson said he is just as likely to see a grizzly while fishing near his Wapiti home, as he is in the back country.