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Q: I once saw a commercial on TV where two young boys were being chased by a bear and one escaped by swimming across a lake. Is it true that bears are bad swimmers? —Christopher Rowe, via email
A: They always say you shouldn’t believe everything you see on TV, and here’s another example of why. In fact, if televised depictions of me are to be believed, I also might wear a tie or love snuggling in freshly-laundered blankets.
The truth is, I’m a very good swimmer—perhaps not terribly fast or agile, but certainly comfortable in water. While polar bears are the clear Michael Phelps of my genus (regularly swimming tens or even hundreds of miles between ice floes), my other relatives are no slouches. As Hakai Magazine reported in 2021, grizzly bears have swam 2 miles or more across ocean inlets in order to reach island habitat where they don’t have to compete with other bears for food; hikers have also observed them bobbing in Denali’s Wonder Lake searching for a meal.
Don’t forget the famed grizzlies of Katmai National Park and Preserve, who spend their autumn fishing salmon out of the Brooks River. Occasionally one of those goes over the falls, and they make out just fine. As for black bears? I’ve personally run into them bathing leisurely in Olympic National Park.
As an avoidance strategy, swimming is little better than climbing a tree. Bears have been known to chase prey by swimming. On top of that, most places that have bears also have very cold water: Whether or not the bear chooses to pursue you, you could be in more danger from hypothermia than from it. (Meanwhile, I have pretty decent wetsuit built-in to my fur—and I’m not afraid to use it.)
—BEAR
Originally published 2011; last updated April 2023