Meet the University of Montana Graduate Who Invented Bear Spray!

As a student, she developed a product that's been one of the most important tools for human-wildlife coexistence for over 40 years.

No, we are not talking about making improvements to the existing product. We mean coming up with the product. And this remarkable achievement led to an amazing career.

MEET CARRIE HUNT

Before bear spray, encounters between people and bears often ended in bullets. UM News Service tells us that changed when graduate student Carrie Hunt developed the life-saving deterrent at the University of Montana in the 1980s. Over 40 years later, bear spray is still one of the most important tools for human-wildlife coexistence.

Hunt grew up in Chile, where she spent her childhood training street dogs. As a zoology student in Montana, she learned how animals are wired and the science behind their behavior. These early experiences sparked a lifelong dedication to promoting coexistence between people and wildlife.

After college, Carrie spent three seasons with the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team in Yellowstone National Park. Over those three years, she saw nearly every female bear she knew get relocated and later put down after conflicts with people.

MADE BY A GRIZ FOR GRIZZLIES

Hunt says,  “By that time I was starting to become aware that this was a big problem for bears everywhere. I knew if I wanted to do something for bears, I would have to go back to school.

Inspired by the work of famed bear researchers Frank and John Craighead, Hunt joined UM in 1981 under the direction of biologist and bear advocate Dr. Chuck Jonkel. With only $500 in funding for her research, Jonkel asked her to test the efficacy of skunk repellent on charging bears.

“This wasn’t what I wanted to do,” Hunt said. “But I thought about all those bears getting in trouble in Yellowstone and decided it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start looking at deterrents.”

Before widespread bear safety policies, the No. 1 reason for human fatalities in bear attacks was food-conditioned bears entering campsites at night. Hunt set out to find something that would deter a bear in a situation like that where it’s difficult to deploy a firearm. She also didn’t want to kill the bear during the process.

“I started testing old-timey remedies like moth balls around the tent, railroad flares, human urine and boat horns,” Hunt said. “I was willing to try anything.”

THE LIGHT BULB MOMENT

She discovered Halt, a capsaicin-derived pepper spray that postmen used to deter dogs. A biologist in the Canadian arctic had once used the spray on a charging polar bear with some success. With so little literature on bear deterrents and even fewer field tests, Hunt figured it was worth a try.

At testing sites like trash dumps, she built triggers into their systems that would deter a bear if it tried to come inside.

“I wrote down if they charged, if they came back and how long they stayed away,” Hunt said. “And those were the first tests of bear spray.”

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Hunt spent the rest of her career developing nonlethal bear deterrents and repellents, including the use of rubber bullets and trained wildlife service dogs. She founded the Wind River Bear Institute in 1996, which trains Karelian bear dogs and their handlers to haze problem bears away from human spaces. Over the last 30 years, she has built a network of biologists who learn her methods and carry on her vision for coexistence with bears.

Our thanks to UM News Service for sharing this fascinating account of a UM student who definitely took the term "Griz Grad" to the next level. You can find out a lot more about Carrie Hunt and the evolution of her product over the past 40 years here.