Fear of Nature

Viki Mather

What are you afraid of? Bears? Wolves? Spiders and snakes? The dark?

As I prepare for my annual solo canoe trip, I think back to all the wilderness trips I’ve taken over the past years. What scared me?

Sometimes I have woken in the night and been afraid in the dark. ‘What’s that noise?’ Stuck inside the thin walls of the tent, I can’t see a thing. So I bought a tent that has mostly screen for walls. Now I sleep better.

You see, it is the not knowing that’s most frightful – whether it be in the forest or in the ‘civilized’ world. If I don’t know if it is a bear or a squirrel sniffling around the tent, it can be very frightening. Now that I can see through the walls of my tent, I have seen that squirrels make lots more noise than bears.

Although I have to admit that I have never seen a bear in my campsite. This is because bears don’t like people. At least wild bears don’t like people. Bears who have learned to eat human food (and human garbage) are not as wild as they used to be. These bears are different than bears in the wilderness.

The secret to not being afraid of bears is in knowing what to expect. Wild bears are afraid of humans. Long experience has taught bears that humans are the most dangerous creature on the planet. Wild bears will avoid humans as much as possible. You would be lucky to see a wild bear because they can hear you coming long before you see them – they can smell you in the air. When wild bears catch a hint of human nearby they retreat. This has always been my experience, the few times I managed to notice the bear before the bear noticed me.

Bears, like any animal, will act in self-defence. If you get between a mama bear and her cubs you could be in trouble. So, you learn to back off quickly should you see a bear cub.

A hungry bear might not take kindly to being interrupted while dining. Yet even then, the bear will do what it can to avoid confrontation. Over the one long weekend this summer my friend was walking down an old road. He came across a dead beaver, freshly killed, right beside the tree it had been cutting. When he came back an hour later, he saw fresh bear scat, but absolutely no sign of the beaver. Apparently, the bear had killed the beaver and was just starting to have breakfast when my friend appeared. The bear disappeared while my friend walked by. When the bear felt it was safe to come out again, it returned to its meal. My friend never saw the bear, but you can be assured the bear saw my friend.

So what are you afraid of in the woods? Whatever the creatures may be give them space and respect, admire their beauty, learn about them and the fear will disappear.

But humans are just as vulnerable as wild things so we have fear too. Our ability to learn can help us to rest. Our ability to empathize needs to be cultivated. Yes, we can dominate many things, but to live in peace, whether it be in nature, or in world politics, we need to be open to understanding: to respect.