Welcome, guest [login | register]

Posted by Bill S on October 24, 2007 at 12:25:34 pm EDT
In reply to Bears, Bears, Bears posted by Timeportalmatrix on August 5, 2007 at 12:57:20 pm EDT

bheiser,
You asked if the tent invasions were

Quote:

people having food or other scented items in the tents... Or were these due to bears having learned previously they might find food inside,

Both. All the incidents we saw last month in the Tioga area were cases where the food was in the tent, car, or "bearproof dumpster" or fishermen with their stringer of fish cooling in the stream a few feet from them as they continued fishing. The incidents involving a kid in a tent here in Calif this summer were all cases where the kid had some candy in the tent with him/her. But my ranger friend in Yosemite tells me that there were several incidents in the Valley, Little Yosemite Valley (backpackers' area), and a couple of the campgrounds along the Tioga Road where a tent was entered that had no food or smellables according to the tent owners, which implies habituation. Only thing is, several of the tents in campgrounds were located close to where the people were cooking, so potentially had picked up smells. Plus, since there is a substantial fine if the bear was attracted to food left in the open or in a tent instead of provided bear boxes (the welded steel lockers) or backpacker canisters, the tent owners might have been denying having left food in the tents, even though it was there. My ranger friend does think that at least one case she interviewed was truthfully a tent with no food or smellables (it was a long-experienced backpacker).

Replies

View: flat | threaded

There have been no replies

Post a Reply

Before replying, please read the complete thread.