If it’s black you’re fine. Brown is shelter now.
Everyone I’ve talked to/know that do stats, forest work, work in the forest, etc. has flagged the same thing. There are a lot of deaths we can’t prove were grizzlies. The stats people all flag the missing person distribution. Areas known to have a heavy grizzly presence are noticeably higher than very low count areas. Lean years have noticeable spikes in those same areas.
The people that work back country have all encountered grizzlies that seemed too comfortable with human aimed hunting behaviour. In their words “bear spray don’t mean shit to a hungry adult grizzly”.
The campers killed in Banff reported a bear attack and sent an emergency GPS signal with the same message. Their route was pre-planned and communicated with someone staying behind. They checked in daily to report progress. They did everything right. It’s unusual, especially for leisure, that people do any of that.
Asked a few relevant people their opinions on the deaths. Opinions differed a bit on exactly what caused it to be officially recognized as a grizzly attack. They did all agree on 2 things. The campers were role models for proper back country safety. If they hadn’t been they would have just been another missing or cause of death unknown statistic.
https://www.echovita.com/us/obituaries/mo/smithville/larry-finger-18230101
Found the obituary. Family is requesting donations to the American Cancer society in lieu of flowers.