FWC, food and bears

[ski3pin]

I have extensive personal experience testing the Bear Resistant Containers made by the company of which I am part owner and I can say for sure that a hungry bear will eat anthing that smells or even looks like food, including toothpaste, bread, apples, grains, meat, candy bars, popcorn, vegetables, even aromatic items such as suntan lotion and lip balm. Even grey water from the sink (dishwashing, tooth brushing, etc) needs to be properly stored and disposed of (we iuse a grey water container and try hard to avoid spills and dumping rinse water on the ground near our campsite).
Bears habituated to and by humans are particularly problematic and it often results in them being euthanized.

As the rangers in all forests and parks advise, keep all food stuff out of sight and in secure containers.

Here is a borrowed set of recommendations that are sound:

General Food Storage Tips
Keeping human food (and other aromatic items such as toiletries) away from animals requires similar practices in both a campground and backcountry campsite. Here are some general tips:

• Never leave food, trash or other scented products inside your tent.
• Never leave your food unattended. Jays, squirrels and chipmunks can quickly snatch food in broad daylight, and other animals come foraging at night.

Food Storage in a Campground

• During the day, keep all your food secured in your cooler or car, even if you’re sitting nearby or on a short jaunt to the outhouse, and especially if you’re away on a hike.
• At night, place any loose food, plus a cooler if you have one, inside a metal bear box if there is one. Storing food inside a car can also be an option in certain areas, but you need to check with local land managers first because some areas (where bears have become adept at breaking into vehicles) prohibit the practice. Raccoons and bears are adept at opening coolers left in the open. Some cooler manufacturers claim certain models are bear-proof, though padlocks might be required. Use a bear resistant canister, if bears are a known nuisance in the campground.

If a bear gets your food it is your fault.

Yup, simple as that.

 

[Ronin]

Yup, simple as that.

And.... it's now the bear's food. Do not try to get it back

 

[wicked1]

I got back from a hike on my last trip, walking back towards the camper. There's a lake past the camper. (In the mountains in CO).

I thought I saw a guy hunched over near the lake. Kept walking towards 'him', and then it got down on all 4 legs and walked away into the woods. It was a big bear! I assumed a brown one, but I am not sure if they actually live in that area, so maybe it was just a big black bear.
I've run in to black bears a lot in the midwest and smokeys, and they are small.. Medium/big dog size, I'd say. I've had them run practically over my feet while hiking twice.. Me going along the mountain on a trail, and them running straight down it.

Maybe we're ignorant, but generally don't worry about them much. We keep the food locked up inside. Anything smelly goes into the truck, and not back in the camper w/ us. Truck completely closed up.. No cracked windows. Truck locked, because they can figure out how to open doors. If we are at an actual campground w/ bear boxes, we use them.

I don't actually have bear spray yet, but should probably order that as soon as I click "post" here... ("yet" is a funny term here, because I've been camping in bear country for the past 30 years. Still, probably about time to throw it in my kit)

 

[EYEMLOST]

I've used a bear bell/bell when I'm in bear country since the mid-'80s.


During my backpacking days; on the backpack.

Now TC'ing; I carry it on my person.


Out of the 22 years I've been in the PNW; moose and bears are the only wild life I have not/never encountered while in the back country.

 

[Vic Harder]

Bear bells... That reminds me of an old wise joke "What's the difference between black bear scat and grizzly scat?"

Grizzly scat has bear bells in it.

 

[Vic Harder]

Black bears can get pretty big. 400 to 600 pounds is pretty typical in the Canadian Rockies.

As an aside, with people here talking about brown/black/grizzly and other names, I had to look up what's what
Brown bear - Wikipedia

 

[JimBow]

Sidebar....I leave for Winds 9-6 and enter @ Elkhart TH for 10-12 days above 10+K...Indian Basin area primarily...questions pertaining to bears in the Winds...when and where was the last time bears there had run-ins with humans [not counting ranchers ]? Being a Vegan gives me a little edge on food odors! Having said that, with a "no fires" outside established campgrounds [none in Winds] it will not be the same, I understand the logic but a small fire and a good sunrise with coffee is the backcountry experience...guess down to coffee and watching the sun come up..I also have camped out of a pack and now in the FWC in 'big bear' country for decades and have never had a negative contact...

Did you have much lightening? Where?

Thanks..Phil

Ps...Ronin were you backpacking or FWC camping or both?

I've backpacked in the southern Winds out of Lander and Big Sandy several times. I've never had a problem with bears. I have seen bear tracks though. I carry bear spray and use an Ursack. That area is within the Grizzly's range, but I don't believe there have been any attacks on people in that part of the Winds. Last summer there was an issue with a dead horse that bears were on. I saw some signs about bear activity in the area, but thankfully the dead horse was gone. The signs got my attention though!

 

[Wallowa]

Thanks Jim...yes, the only accounts of negative bear contacts in Winds I can find are supposed predation of Griz on cattle near Green River and north end of the range...funny we graze "slow elk" in bear habitat and they get pissed when a bear eats one.

Largest black bear in Ca as I recall was killed by a teenager a number of years [decades?] ago near Shasta, 550 lbs, the bear not the teenager. FYI, black bear can have brown coloration; that does not make them a Brown Bear-Griz.

Just me, but I really hate to see any wild critter killed; so much unfounded fear and our seemingly unlimited desire to kill without the need to eat what is killed. Again, just my slant of it.

Kodiaks and so called Coastal Brown Bears are larger than mainland Griz primarily due to abundant food supply; this along with genetic isolation produces some very big bears. We saw several mature Grizzly bear near Well-Gray park in BC a few years ago; magnificent animals. In late 80s' when kayaking in Tracy Arm SEA I had the treat of watching a huge Coastal Brown bear scraping mussels of the rocks at low tide for perhaps an hour.

Phil

 

[ckent323]

We tested our food storage canisters in the late 1990's and early 2000's with a Black Bear at the Folsom Zoo named Fisher. At that time the rangers working with us said he was unusually large for a California Black bear at nearly 600 pounds. They told us that most California Black Bears are under 350 pounds.

We also tested with Brown bears (aka Grizzley bears) which are much larger but less agile and, I believe, less intelligent. Black bears are curious, nimble as a cat and quite intelligent.

The Brown bears are brutes and try to use force. They gave up quickly when the could not defeat the canister. The Black Bears on the other hand tried very hard and used several different approaches to try to get into the canisters (with no success).

Of course we tested with several other Black Bears besides Fisher but he was far anad away the largest Black Bear we tested with.

I have encoundered Black bears several times camping and backpacking over my more than 55 years of camping and backpacking in California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Canadian Rockies and Alaska. Usually these Bears have been shy of humans and avoided us. I have never lost food to a Bear but I have seen them walk right into camp and test if people will scatter and leave their food (upper Kern River below Mt Whitney). I have seen them get food from other campers who were careless (Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon). I have seen them break into garbage bins as well.

We have numerous testimonials from people who use our bear resistant food storage containers about the efforts Black bears in particular have gone to trying to get at food stored in our canisters (unsuccessfully). I have also talked with several National Park and Forest Service Bear experts including a few we worked with while developing our canister in the 1990's. They told many stories of bears breaking into cars, tents, bluff charging campers and other ways they they have learned how to successfully get food.

I have seen several Brown/Grizzley Bears in the wild but never up close when outside of a vehicle and never while in camp, or while hiking or backpacking.

There are reasons why a number of Forests and National Parks have bear problems and require Bear Resistan Containers. Some of these places did not have much of a problem 20 or 30 years ago. Others like Yosemite have had problems with people and Bears for many decades. However, in the end analysis, people not being careful with storing and disposing of anything that even remotely smells or looks like food are the reason for the growing problem. Problem bears are the result of careless campers and are the victims not the cause.