I read an article recently about some tourists in Grand Teton National Park that learned the hard way that singing does not actually keep bears away. Which, to be fair, was news to me as well. My family moved to Alaska when I was ten, and everyone warned us to watch out for bears on our hikes. My parents bought bear bells for all of us to wear while hiking, and even carried a little canister of pepper spray.

Side note: do you know how to tell the difference between black bear scat and grizzly scat? Black bear scat often contains traces of berries, and grizzly scat contains small bells and smells like pepper.

My mom was quite nervous our first time out in the woods, but my dad reassured her that if we heard any bears, “we’ll just have Kara start singing, that’ll scare them all away!”

For the record, IT WORKED. I sang, and we never saw any bears. I haven’t tried it in Yellowstone or Grand Teton yet, but I’ve been practicing the soundtrack to Hamilton so I’m ready.