Bear-proof suit: it's the outside that counts

Last Updated: Tuesday, December 11, 2001 | 5:48 PM ET

CBC News

An unconventional animal behaviourist has tested his bear-proof suit against a pair of giant brown bears.

With the help of a bear handler and his pair of trained bruins, Troy Hurtubise discovered the most protective feature of the space age suit is its strange appearance.

The suit makes Hurtubise look like an oversized robot. "There's no grizzly that's going to come near you in that suit," the bear handler told him.

Ursus Mark VI

Hurtubise has spent the past 15 years developing the suit he calls Ursus Mark VI. It's built to withstand bear attacks, and at an undisclosed location in British Columbia, he had his first chance to test it in a live encounter.

Encounter with a Kodiak

But the bears didn't react to the suit right away.

"I didn't get actual contact," Hurtubise told CBC Radio, "the bears are terrified of the suit. They wouldn't come near it".

With the help of the bear handler, Hurtubise introduced the suit to a 545 kg Kodiak by placing it in the cage. He stood outside to see how the bear would react before putting himself inside. "Just because it's a trained bear doesn't mean it won't kill you in one swat", he said.

To his surprise, in time, the bear "claimed" the suit, taking it underneath him as if he wasn't going to give it back.

Don't skimp on materials

The suit, made from layers of steel, titanium, chain mail and rubber "wasn't built for a Kodiak" he said. "The bear was peeling back the chain mail like it was a banana".

Hurtubise claims "shark chain mail" used to protect against great white shark attacks would have made a difference. The kind used in the suit, butcher's chain mail, "is just fine against a Grizzly", he claims, "but not a Kodiak".

Without the most effective chain mail, the bear handler wouldn't allow Hurtubise to take on the Kodiak.

So he offered a 145 kg female grizzly instead.

• INDEPTH: Face to face with a Grizzly

"Sure enough, not so much to my surprise, there was no way the bear was going to come near that suit", Hurtubise said. "It could have been 10 days, the bear wasn't coming near me. She was just scared to death by the suit".

Determined to test his suit against the Kodiak, Hurtubise returned to the bears' cage, this time, inside the armoured suit, and under the watchful eye of the bears' handler.

Reality set in when the bear was 15 centimetres away, breathing in his face. He said the bear was so close that it blocked the sun in front of him. He was "terrified", and knew the suit couldn't handle the bear if it attacked.

The bear backed off on the handlers' command. "The handler is like a mother to the bear", he said.

Round two to come

Hurtubise says it's back to the drawing board for his bear-proof suit. He plans to strip it down and "put the real chain mail on" before going back for round two with the Kodiak in the spring.

His suit has been the subject of a television documentary and the recipient of an IgNobel prize-a prize that honours people whose achievements cannot, or should not, be reproduced.