EIs it better for a woman walking alone in the forest to find herself facing a bear or a man? Although the question may seem far-fetched, it nonetheless covers a real social debate. It all started with a video broadcast on TikTok by the English media Screenshot. We see women of all ages responding mostly preferring to come face to face with a bear. Among the arguments put forward: “The bear can only kill me or leave me alone, whereas when faced with a man there are infinite possibilities”, “If I say that a bear attacked me, people will believe me”, “If I survive, I won’t risk meeting him again in town”, “If a bear kills me, at least we’ll shoot it afterwards”, “No one will tell me that the bear attacked me because of the way I dress”…
Over the past month, the video has been viewed more than 16 million times and the question “man or bear?” » has become one of the most popular trends on the social network. Because the subject “man vs. bear” not only causes debate between men and women, but also divides men among themselves. So mothers decided to ask their partners the question, asking what they would prefer regarding their daughter. The men interviewed mostly answered “a bear”.
A clear preference is thus emerging in favor of the plantigrade, which has caused many male bipeds to react. “Pro-man” people find it insulting to be compared to an animal. Others say they are sensitive to the subject of violence against women but believe that this type of survey is not the right way to make men aware of the issue. THE “pro-bear” claim, for their part, to approach the question from a purely rational point of view, based on the study of the behavior of bears. “A bear can be afraid of a woman, but a man is not.says an Internet user. Of course I would prefer my daughter to meet a bear. »
“Bears are very afraid of men”
So, man or bear? To find out, we interviewed one of the greatest brown bear specialists in France, the biologist Jean-Jacques Camarra, author ofIn bear country (The Salamandre, 2022). It teaches us that the bear is an animal that is generally harmless to humans. “It all depends on the type of encounter, of course. Let’s say that, in the vast majority of cases, the bear will run away., he explains. Indeed, although bear attacks on hikers or campers regularly make the headlines, from a statistical point of view they are extremely rare. “Bears are very afraid of menexplains Jean-Jacques Camarra. Man has been destroying bears for several centuries, and this history has permeated their behavior. Mothers teach their cubs human avoidance strategies, for example by taking them from a very young age into very steep areas where they will have little chance of encountering them. »
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