Sciencemadness Discussion Board

repel animals with sound

xxxxx - 2-12-2008 at 16:23

i have seen dog repelling high frequency sound generating devices sold on amazon.com. i was wondering if it might be possible to repel larger animals with similar devices, say if you were mountain biking in india or alaska and got attacked by a tiger or a bear maybe it might be possible to repel the animal with high freqency sound.

12AX7 - 2-12-2008 at 18:45

Assssssuming they work...

Tim

DrP - 3-12-2008 at 03:48

I know the best advise for bears is to remain compleatly still, but if that failed and the bear came to attack then what about a loud air horn to scare it off? Would that work or just make it more aggressive?

chief - 3-12-2008 at 04:42

A bear is a brutally dangerous thing: Stay away from any bear-country, or be able to defend ! Probably against the bear some chemical weapon might work better. One thing that must be clear: The bear frequently hears all sorts of loud noise, namely the death-screams of the prey. At the end you trigger the false sort of behaviour at the bear ...

If you have any people, who want to take you to a trip to such bear-territories: Thats the occasion to say: NO. (Same counts for swimming in sharky waters.)

[Edited on 3-12-2008 by chief]

Geomancer - 3-12-2008 at 08:52

Bears and cats are, of course, different things. Recently I spent a few days walking in an area populated by both. The bears don't worry me much, since I know that most bear attacks are territorial or defensive in nature. Hence the standard advice is simply to make enough noise to warn bears of your approach and, if confronted, to make oneself appear non-aggressive but capable of self defense (make noise, wave your arms slowly, hold your ground or back away slowly). Since bears have good hearing, an ultrasound emitter would probably help in both cases. Note that a mountain biker's speed may not give a bear time to clear the area, though.

Cat attacks, however, are often predatory. When I encountered a mountain lion you better believe I spent the next hour or so looking over my shoulder. Still, a noisemaker will probably engage the cat's natural caution, so lend some level of protection.

The downside, of course, of carrying a constant noise source is that it will frighten most wildlife capable of high frequency hearing. My personal preference is to make very little noise. I consider the increased risk of bear confrontations to be negligible in comparison to the benefits of not disturbing my surroundings.

chief - 3-12-2008 at 12:26

It's just foolish to mess with such forces of nature: They have a will of their own, unlike maybe the chemicals your'e playing around with. If the bear doesn't like you: There you go. Somewhere on youtube is the actual voice-recording of one guy getting eaten: "Oh my god" all the while; try to find it ! It's only the voice-recording, but one can imagine him, still being alive, seeing parts of himself go for the lunch, one after the other ...
How glad I am to be in Europe, where such things are ruled out since centuries ...
That also might have been some little known advantage of Great Britain in the past: Once the last bear is over, there don't come any new ones, since it's an island.

Remember : If you can't fight Mike Tyson, you can't fight a bear.

chemkid - 3-12-2008 at 13:46

Taking proper bear precautions (hanging food/'smellables' in trees at night in a bear bag etc.) will prevent bears from coming anywhere near you. Bear rarely attack people and the attacks are rarely lethal. I have routinely backpacked/camped in bear country and never had any encounters.

Chemkid

chief - 4-12-2008 at 06:24

There always will be something like the mad bear: Just as with humans: A small percentage get wrong in the head for a zillion of possible reasons. That's nature. Such a bear is gonna be after you.
Also an old one, too old to get some prey, or hungered since a while, or temporarily weakened from some disease, or having eaten the wrong plant ... ... is just gonna see you as food.

Well, anyhow: As long as there are enough "heroes" who deliberately get themselves into the bears diet, chances are good that at least an amount of the dangerous bears get spottet out, and can be hunted down. Though by far not all of them ...

You know: It just might be tourist-propaganda: Bear not dangerous ... haha .. but as long as each year a million people go to the territories, and leave $$$ there (each person), it's a semi-billion $ industry; so _of_course_ it will be talked upon this like it were not dangerous ...

DrP - 4-12-2008 at 08:01

Quote:
Originally posted by Geomancer
...the standard advice is simply to make enough noise to warn bears of your approach and, if confronted, to make oneself appear non-aggressive but capable of self defense (make noise, wave your arms slowly, hold your ground or back away slowly). ........


Hmm... are you sure that's the standars advise? - that's not what the documentry I saw recently suggested (for grizzly bears anyway) - it suggested that you freeze completely and not make ANY move that the bear could consider aggressive or a teritorial claim - otherwise it rips you a new one. The reporter in this documentry was a bit scared to say the least, but he and his film crew stood perfectly still while a grizzly walked right past them. Don't make eye contact they said - it is considered threatening and challanging behaviour in the animal world.


EDIT: OK - I see where your coming from now after some reading. The usual advice is to make some noise as you walk so that they become aware of your presence and don't get taken by supprise. If they do attack or come close, then you stand tall and keep still. If it charges (LOL) you are suppose to stand your ground, put back your shoulders and look tall - the idea here is to hope that the bear's charge is a dummy one and that it will chicken out at the last minute (if you run they WILL chase and catch you).


[Edited on 4-12-2008 by DrP]

Fleaker - 4-12-2008 at 15:05

It's true that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound in cure, but if it were me or the bear walking away...

No one has talked about the simple option: arming oneself when one goes hiking/camping. A geologist and mining industry consultant I know worked for a prospecting and geo survey company in Alaska and much of northwest Canada. The company's policy was that everyone out in the field should carry a large bore shotgun with high velocity slugs and a .44 magnum (which may just aggravate it). I'm sure a few rounds from a .306 rifle would also persuade the bear to think twice.

Of course, guns are only useful if you can maintain your composure and remember to shoot it in the head, perhaps a trifle difficult when a 700kg angry Brown bear is charging you at 40kph!

[Edited on 4-12-2008 by Fleaker]