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Posted by Bill S on May 1, 2008 at 11:59:37 am EDT
In reply to Bear Food Ediquette While Camping Question CO posted by skinny_duck on April 28, 2008 at 12:16:03 am EDT

nogods thinks that

Quote:

wildlife managers are hoping the canisters will train a generation of bears and then subsequent bruins will not bother to attempt to get food from campsites. I just don't think that will work. I think the 3rd generation of bears will just start exploring campsites looking for food anyway.

Not quite correct. You are correct that the bears will continue to explore campsites, as long as there are people like the ones who were in the same campgrounds Barb and I stayed in near Tioga Pass last Aug and Sep (leave stuff out, fishermen who have their string cooling in the water next to them, etc) and dumpsters that have food dumped in them. Bears (especially blacks) are very curious and intelligent, besides being basically empty stomachs on legs. The place you are slightly in error, at least as far as the land managers and rangers I know and work with, is that the bears will (and have) learn that a bear canister in the camp means that they can't get into it (the approved ones that have been tested anyway), so they will not linger around such areas. The land managers are well aware that the bears will not decide that it is useless to investigate human campsites. It is well known that if you leave the canister open or food out, the bear will find it.

The hope is that if people learn to use canisters and bear boxes (the welded, thick steel permanent kind in established campgrounds) religiously and properly, the pickings will be slim enough that the bears will learn to seek better and easier sources elsewhere. Canisters and bear boxes are not magic - people have to use them properly and not leave food out. Unfortunately from what I continue to see, a large number of people do not read or listen to the instructions. To repeat just one of the examples, at the campground we used as base camp for climbing around the Tioga Pass area last year, despite signs and bear boxes at every campsite, most campers were leaving food unattended, leaving ice chests out on the tables full time, leaving the fish innards out after cleaning the fish, and leaving fish stringers cooling in the streams right next to the campsites. They were also leaving their garbage sacks at the campsites instead of walking the 20 or 30 feet to the dumpsters, and even when they did go to the dumpsters, they often did not close them securely.

In the backcountry, some supposedly long-time experienced backpackers still insist that their old approach of keeping the food in the tent or bear bagging is safe enough (even though Yosemite, Inyo NF, and Kings-Sequoia NP bears learned how to get at bear bags years ago). Some leave food cooking or out in preparation for a meal while walking to the stream to get water or otherwise unattended. As long as these practices persist, the bears will know that humans are a big dinner bell.

Land managers know this, and try to inform campers, as well as issuing expensive citations. So far, it has met with minimal success. Personally, I will keep all food (including the easily recognizable food containers, like cans, boxes, ice chests, etc) out of sight or in the bear boxes. This has worked well, even when campsites within 25-30 feet have been raided. Best example of this was a recent basecamping trip where the 4 sites of us who were using bear boxes and were careful to stay with the food being cooked and eaten were untouched, while every other occupied campsite in the campground was raided (12 of them) - ripped tents, ice chests opened, and one car broken into.

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• Re: Bear Food Ediquette While Camping Question CO - nogods 21:04:46 05/01/2008

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