Yellowstone National Park is launching a new campaign to encourage visitors to carry bear spray in the park.

The “A Bear Doesn’t Care” campaign starts this summer and features local celebrities like Conrad Anker and Jeff Bridges whose images will be featured on posters, magazine ads and social media posts.

The idea is to encourage everyone – hikers, photographers, “geyser gazers” – to carry bear spray.

“A bear doesn’t care how far you’re hiking, if you’re just fishing, or even if you work here,” Superintendent Dan Wenk said in a press release. “No matter who you are or what you are doing, you should always carry bear spray and know how to use it.”

According to the release, recent data shows that only 28 percent of visitors to the park’s backcountry carry bear spray, which is more than 90 percent effective in stopping an aggressive bear, making it the most effective deterrent when combined with other best practices – being alert, hiking in groups of three or more and not running if you encounter a bear.

Click here to learn more about bear encounters and how to use bear spray.

 

Check out more posters from the campaign HERE.

Participants at this year's Kidabaloo got to practice their bear spray skills in this bear attack simulator. Watch the video below to see what it's like:

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