I agree completely. I just have been around grizzly bears less so feel more on edge around them even if totally irrational in comparison to moose.

What? It's absolutely a good metric. There are literally more grizzly bear attacks than cougar attacks despite cougars existing in almost every state and humans being around them way more than grizzlies.

Gauging danger of an animal based on social media videos you've seen is a way worse metric.

Will be interesting to see how this pans out.

Selfishly, I do feel more comfortable in the backcountry when I know grizzlies aren't in the area, but it's also kinda a shame that grizzlies only exist in small pockets in the continental US across WY, ID, MT and a shred of WA. Healthy prevalence of species does trump my comfort level of course though.

As far as scary mammals in North America the top two of my ranked list:

1. Grizzly bears

2. Moose

Black bears and then cougars are probably next but both of those are so far down in scariness compared to the top two they barely even register.

The bell thing isn't true.

Black bears will mostly leave you alone. And grizzly bears as a whole will as well. But grizzly bears are definitely more territorial than black bears.

Grizzlies are far more dangerous than mountain lions. Mountain lions spread across the entire US and average far fewer attacks on humans annually than grizzly bears despite grizzly bears occupying only a super small area of land across a few states.