by Dr. Margaret Aranda
The question arises as to
whether bears attack women who are on their periods, due to the attraction of
the menstrual blood. In 1983, Cushing
presented his findings at the International Conference on Bear Research and
Management, documenting the responses of polar bears to menstrual odors. This spearheaded the future work in this
area, which continues to this day. Stay
with me as we explore the fascinating issues surrounding this issue.
Yellowstone National Park (YNP)
has been tabulating interactions between bears and humans in their district,
which includes parks in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Data analyzed in 2012 by Kerry A. Gunther, bear
biologist and expert at YNP’s Bear Management Program. He showed that the
overall risk of human injury (for any reason) by a bear in YNP, men and women
inclusive, is 1 in 2.1 million. But the
interest and fascination with this subject continues.
Kerry A. Gunther.
Perhaps the biggest outburst public
scrutiny on bears attacking menstruating occurred after the night of August 13,
1967 in Glacier National Park. The Park
is located in northwestern Montana, along the Rocky Mountains. In a situation that was later determined to
be unrelated and coincidental, two women on their periods were killed by
Grizzly bears on this night. The
National Park Service (NPS) subsequently put out a bulletin that menstruating
women could be attacked by the Black Grizzly bear, perhaps spurring that
speculation had turned into a scientific notion that the two were actually
scientifically related. The official
statement was, “..women should stay out of bear country during their menstrual
period.” Years of belief ensued, wherein
it was thought that camping or hiking women on their periods were attractants
to killings by bears.
In his 1983 study on captive Polar Bears and the
odor of menstrual blood, Cushing studied a series of different odors and their
effect on bears. Scents included seal scent, food, used tampons, and non-menstrual human
blood. There was a strong response to
seal scent and used tampons. Cushing
also studied wild Polar Bears, who were attracted to and ate food and used
tampons, perpetuating the observation that bears are attracted to menstrual
blood.
In 1985, Herrero studied Grizzly
bears and human attacks, including the two women attacked in 1967. He concluded that there was no relationship.
In 1988, Byrd revisited the
unsettled issue, trying to answer this question on his Thesis for his Master’s
in Science. He found that there was no
evidence that the Black Grizzly bear preferred menstrual odors over other
odors, and there was no scientific evidence that hundreds of bear attacks were
related to women on their periods (Byrd 1988).
In 1991, Rogers et al studied
how 26 wild Black Bears reacted to used tampons from 26 women. In a novel design, he also studied 20 wild
Black Bears’ response to 4 women’s menstrual blood at different times of their
menstrual cycle. The bears ignored the
menstrual odors.
From 1980 through 2002, YNP had
over 62,000,000 visitors spending over 15,400,000 nights at the main
campgrounds and 956,000 nights in the backcountry. No one kept track of statistics on the
proportion of menstruating women. There
were 32 people injured by bears, coming to 1.2 injuries per year. Gunther and
Hoekstra evaluated 1970 - 1994 statistics, citing that no bear injuries to
humans were caused by menstruating women.
Official word came out on August 9, 2012 from Kerry A. Gunther, who categorically stated that bears are not attracted to menstruating women. We can rest assured that if we keep the safety measures cited above, the risk would be so small as to be unproven. So hat's away to camping, and be careful in the backwoods.
References:
Byrd, C.P. Of bears and women: Investigating the
hypothesis that menstruation attracts bears.
M.S. Thesis, Univ. Montana, Missoula.
129 pp, 1988.
Cushing, B. 1983. Responses
of polar bears to human menstrual odors. International Conference on Bear
Research and Management 5:270-274.
Gunther K.A. and H.L.
Hoekstra. Bear-inflicted human injuries
in Yellowstone, 1970 – 1994, a cautionary and instructive guide to who gets
hurt and why. Yellowstone Science 4(1):2-9.
1997.
Herrero, S.M. Bear attacks – their causes and
avoidance. Winchester Press, New Century
Publishers, Inc. Piscataway, New Jersey,
287 pp, 1985.
Nelson, Brian. Mother Nature
Network. Mentruating women do not
attract bear attacks. August 9,
2012. http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/menstruating-women-do-not-attract-bear-attacks
_____. Yellowstone National Park
website. National Park Service. Bears
and Menstruating Women. http://www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/bears_women.htm
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Dr. Margaret Aranda's Books:
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Little Missy Two-Shoes Likes to go to School
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From Menarche to Menopause: A Journey through Time
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Very interesting article, thank you for posting this. I think as women we know that although bears may not be attracted to our scent during that time of the month--dogs always are. I use to always find my little Mandy girl (my puppy) destroying the trash every month. One day she got so sick from it, I had to take her to the vet. The vet actually gave me these biodegradable disposal bags with anti-microbial agents in them called Scensibles Bags (www.scensiblesbags.com) and they worked perfectly. As a doctor do you use them, or have you ever heard of them?
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