Bears terrify a lot of people. So much so that "arkoudaphobia" — the fear of bears — is a common phenomenon.

However, the danger bears pose to people in North America is massively embellished in the public's collective psyche. Fantastical representations of bears in literature, television and film have exacerbated arkoudaphobia. The Oscar-winning film The Revenant is one example of bear mauling dramatization. The 1989 book We're Going on a Bear Hunt is an example of early fear-building among children.

In actuality, given how little wild habitat bears have left and the penchant humans have to hike through the bear territory that remains, attacks are very rare. To be so unfortunate as to die by mauling — at least in the jowls of a bear — would require a similar amount of luck (or lack thereof) as winning the lottery. In Yellowstone National Park, an area with quite a few grizzly bears and over 118 million visits since 1979, there have only been 44 total ...