Is it better for a woman walking alone in the forest to run into a bear or a man? The question may seem far-fetched but it has become a real social debate. It all started with a video posted on TikTok by the British media outlet Screenshot. The video features interviews with women of all ages, most saying they'd prefer coming face to face with a bear. Among their arguments: "The bear can only kill me or leave me alone, whereas facing a man, there are an infinite number of possibilities," "If I tell people that a bear attacked me, they'll believe me," "If I survive, I'm not likely to run into him again in town," "If a bear kills me, at least they'll shoot him afterward," "No one will tell me that the bear attacked me because of the way I dress"...

Over the past month, the video has been viewed over 16 million times and the question "man or bear?" has become one of the most popular trends on the social network. That's because the "man vs. bear" topic is not only debated between men and women but because it has also proved divisive among men. Some mothers decided to put the question to their partners, asking what they would prefer when it came to their daughter. Most men answered, "A bear."

A clear preference for the plantigrade is evident which has led many male bipeds to react. "Pro-men" advocates find it insulting to be compared to an animal. Others say they are sensitive to the issue of violence against women but feel that this type of survey is not the right way to raise men's awareness of the issue. On the other hand, the "pro-bear" group claims to approach the issue from a purely rational point of view based on the study of bear behavior. "A bear might be afraid of a woman, but a man might not," said one user. Of course, I'd prefer my daughter to meet a bear."

So, man or bear? To find out, we interviewed one of France's leading brown bear specialists, the biologist Jean-Jacques Camarra, author of Au Pays de l'Ours (In The Land of the Bear, La Salamandre, 2022). He explained that bears are generally harmless to humans. "It all depends on the type of encounter, of course. Let's just say that, in the vast majority of cases, the bear will run away," he explained. Indeed, while attacks on hikers or campers by bears regularly make headlines in the media, they are extremely rare from a statistical point of view. "Bears are really afraid of man," explained Camarra. "Man has been destroying bears for several centuries, and this history has permeated their behavior. Mothers teach their cubs strategies for avoiding humans, for example, by taking them from an early age to very steep areas where they are unlikely to encounter them."

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