Bear maulings treated in Calgary, Alberta: Their management and sequelae.

Should I play dead or fight back? A question people would ask themselves if suddenly faced with the most feared animal in the Canadian Rockies. Should your response differ if faced with a black bear as opposed to a grizzly bear? Dr Stephen Herrero, a Canadian authority on the subject, has addressed these issues, among others, in a recently published book (1). Ursus americanus and Ursus arctos horribilis (black and grizzly bears, respectively) inhabit a large area of North America (1). Black bears can be found in approximately three-quarters of all land within Alberta, while grizzly bears inhabit only one-third (2). Estimates of the population of black bears (38,160 to 39,192) are more than 35 times that of grizzly bears (1035 to 1075), yet grizzly bear attacks have been reported to be 10 times more common than black bear attacks (1,2). The goal of the present study was to document the injuries suffered in bear maulings and to add to the literature on the management and the potential complications of these traumatic events.