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I would take the bear.
It is a whole ass forest! Random collisons would already be unlikely, but on top of that, I am sufficiently experienced with hiking to know how to avoid bears. I also don't need help, so the alternative (friendly human) is kind of useless here.
So, the only bad event that can occur is a freak instance of a pscho-killer sprawning and wanting to screw me over.
I have thought this through:
sloth bear-> you can scare it offThe only situation where I'd take a man, is if I was stuck there for life. Need some companionship, and bear ain't gonna cut it.
Actually, no, scratch that. I take the man.
Sloth bears are aggressive, nimble and amazing tree climbers. They would probably rush me and kill me before I get anything off the ground. Only about 1-2% of bear are sloth bears, but that still more than serial killers. So there are 2 bad outcomes, and an aggressive sloth bear is far likelier than a psychopathic killer who is also stronger than me.
you have avoided bears on your hikes because the bears also wanted to avoid you. if the bear doesnt want to avoid you it will kill you 100% of the time. a random bear of any type wanting to eat you is orders of magnitude more likely than a random person being psychopathic killer.
Does a bear wanna kill me ?
Afaik, only 3 kinds of bears attack humans
A Polar bear will need to be starved for weeks before it starts hunting the one other human in the forest. And they don't climb trees, so I can reliably protect myself in the short term. Most other bears can be avoided strategically.
The reason humans are scary is that a serial killer will want to start planning their kill from minute 1. You have to fight the human on even ground. On the other hand, the bear will take ages before it decides to engage with you. You can plan your engagement with it perfectly.
That's why a sloth bear is the scrariest. They can climb trees, eat more often, actively engage with humans and react with incredible aggression. Nothing I can do. Dead before sunrise.
if the bear wants to kill you, you will die. they can all climb trees. if they couldnt you wont climb fast enough. if you could climb fast enough it will wait at the bottom of the tree.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_bear_attacks_in_North_America
bears attack for lots of reasons
"polar bears in trees" -> google image search
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