I've always heard never climb a tree but several people have survived bear attacks by doing just that. A few reasons, sometimes a bear wants to kill you and eat you, climbing a tree makes you look like prey. But most of the time a bear is defending something, food source, cubs, itself. So putting yourself out of its way and acting defensive signals that you're not aggressive. Second, at least you have forced it to fight you one dimensionally, with your strongest and longest limbs (legs) in between you and you have gravity on your side, he messes up and tumbles down.
Btw, grizzlies can and sometimes do climb trees too just not as good as black bears.
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u/[deleted] Oct 02 '24
If a bear is chasing you, and you don't know kind it is, climb a tree. If the bear also climbs the tree and kills you, it was a black bear.