Originally published at: Watch as Great Pyrenees tells a bear where to go and stuff itself | Boing Boing
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That bear must’ve been thinking “there’s no way that’s a dog. It’s as big as me!”
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Just goes to show that, like most wild animals, bears are not particularly enthusiastic about getting into a fight they don’t think they can easily win. Most animals, even the largest predators, won’t risk an injury or spending more energy than a potential prey is worth. That’s why you see bears running away from cats or small dogs, too - they could kill them, sure, but it’s a lot of effort for a tiny bit of food, and it comes with the risk of a nasty scratch or bite that may hinder them later on, or even get infected.
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Bear, “You can’t fool me; that’s a human in a dog suit!”
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Dog barking. Stops to smile and make sure everyone sees them barking and scaring the big bear away! Continues to bark and wag tail in joy
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Ah, skunks are easy. One of the dogs I had long ago got right up in a giant fat skunk’s face (like, noses touching), and barked at it. Scared the thing so bad it sprayed all over the lawn behind it, then realised it had shot it’s only defence in the wrong direction completely, and waddled away at top speed.
It got away easily, because my dog was so distracted by the wonderful new smell he had discovered, and was busy rolling in it.
Skunks are easy, it’s cleaning up after them that’s hard.
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Yes, and?
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One of my fierce Cavalier King Charles once charged straight into the rear end of a skunk, turned, and coated in skunk juice sprinted for the backdoor of the house, which opened into a laundry room. She managed to get in the door and then rolled herself about in a pile of just removed from the dryer clean laundry, on the floor, and anywhere she could find to rub herself. It was a disaster and the whole house stank to high heaven.
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One theory I’ve heard about bears running away from dogs, and even small dogs, is that when a bear sees a dog, it thinks “wolf”, and wolves are generally in groups, which they don’t want to tangle with. And small dogs may be seen as “wolf cubs” and they REALLY don’t want to deal with a pack protecting cubs.
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Could be, but to be honest I think it’s stretching a bit, considering wolves tend to behave very differently, for example they don’t bark. (They can bark, they just generally don’t.) Also, I would assume - not being a bear myself - that many dogs don’t look very similar to wolves in a way that a bear could probably recognize. I think the bear just sees a creature that’s clearly not willing to go down without a fight, assesses the potential risks vs benefits, and usually decides to just go “eh, not worth it” - unless it’s really desperate. (Wolves tend to do the same, as well as most other predators that aren’t ambush type, like most cats. But even those generally won’t attack a creature that they think they can’t kill without a fight where they can get injured, unless of course they’re protecting something.)
Not to be That Person, but just in case anyone has this misconception - a dog wagging its tail doesn’t necessarily mean it’s happy, only that it’s agitated for whatever reason. This dog is clearly very tense, the tail wagging is absolutely not the happy kind.
By the way, I just noticed that this video is from Greece - are bears generally around much in Greece? Just wondering because there’s been sightings in my neck of the woods as well, in places where nobody has seen bears in decades. I wonder why.
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Apparently there’s decent bear population in northern Greece.
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No doubt the pup is tense and maybe scared, especially at first, but I think they were also having fun there at at the end and very proud of themself. Then again, I’m not an expert on dog body language. Now, if that was a cat, I could tell.
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And bears seem to be more intimidated by cats.
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I mean, Pyrenees were literally bred to protect herds from bears and other predators.
It’s just doing its job in the same way a Border Collie zooming around a meadow is.
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I interpreted it more as “Is my 200 lb primate still here to back me up? Oh good, let’s get back to it.”
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He was truly a gentle giant, who put on a good show. Nemo had a couple of “tell the local coyote pack to leave our property moments” and one where he cornered a deer on top of an elevated deck, the sound of panicked deer hooves on a composite deck is not to be forgotten. Thank the maker there were no bear in our neighborhood to mess with!
My dad had a bush dog named Pup in Alaska. Medium sized mutt of some kind. Wasn’t scared of much, including bears, but there was a time when a huge grizzly made its way into camp and managed to get into a tin of molasses in the storage shed. That was one bear Pup didn’t go barking at.
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Pop, “Sorry, mate, that’s above my pay grade.”
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Better when the bear is on a downhill
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Who let the dogs out? That Mummy Bear was just taking her kids for a pleasant stroll, when they were set upon by a pack of domesticated dogs.
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I get more of a “See how it’s done, you weird hairless tin opener?” vibe.
… maybe I should stop anthropomorphizing animals. Who am I, Walt Disney?
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