Camping With Bears

OK, when I used to go canoeing and camping in the Boundary Waters/Quetico Provincial Park area, we had a regular practice of suspending our food packs between two tall trees, thinking this would give adequate protection, and we definitely had bears trigger our "pots and pans" alarm system at night. But seeing these photos taken in B.C., I no longer have any confidence you can do anything. Note the sign writing--only in Canada!

Those were some amusing pics. I'm also not convinced there's any stopping a determined bear from getting a tasty meal, but I hang my food in the trees anyway. Hilarious sign too.

LOL @ the sign. Also, I try to carry some bearbangers with me whenever I'm going way backwoods.

Hilarious sign, smart bear. In Yosemite bear proof canisters became mandatory years ago as the bears were doing exactly the same thing.

That sign is hilarious. Don't mess with grizzlies!

LuxLuthor said:

Click to expand...

At first I thought that was a novelty sign . . . Then I took a closer look. :thumbsdow

There has been two hunters mauled to death by bears in the past three years near my office. This is all the warning you get,

tygger said:

Hilarious sign, smart bear. In Yosemite bear proof canisters became mandatory years ago as the bears were doing exactly the same thing.

Click to expand...

Same goes for Denali, where there aren't even any trees to try hanging your food, but with the bear proof canisters all they can do is bite at it and bat it around before they give up and go get the meal referred to on the sign.

Seriously though, bears that don't think they can get food from humans are a lot safer to be around.

kaichu dento said:

Seriously though, bears that don't think they can get food from humans are a lot safer to be around.

Click to expand...

Problem is, you get some Neo-Hippie / Animal-rights activist who decides it would be great to commune with nature, by giving "Yogi" a snack. :ironic:

Monocrom said:

Problem is, you get some Neo-Hippie / Animal-rights activist who decides it would be great to commune with nature, by giving "Yogi" a snack. :ironic:

Click to expand...

It doesn't even take any of the groups you've listed - simple ignorance is all it takes, and that belongs to most all groups. Even knowledgeable people are guilty of laziness in cleaning up after themselves. If I leave some of my leftovers on the ground and you come along, you don't see a meal, but a bear does.

LOL @ the last bit on the sign -- took me a sec to put two and two together.

I built a small hunt camp in northern ON some years back and bears were always a problem; everything we had was stored in metal cans with locking lids.
It was our habit to take a ride on snow machine in the late winter and deliver some outboard gas to the camp for the next season; we generally left a plastic 3 gal can of gas outside of the camp.

One fall we arrive for the moose hunt and find the can all chewed to he__. Can you imagine the surprise the bear got when he bit thru the can and got a mouth full of gas !!! He must have been some irritated since he then proceeded to make the can look like a piece of bubble gum (used).

Hoax???

http://selever.freeshell.org/projects/rand/

leeholaaho said:

Hoax???

http://selever.freeshell.org/projects/rand/

Click to expand...

I think the people writing those things are pretty clever, but maybe a little too much so. I like the way they figure the weights for bears where they give a figure of weight for male and female bears, as if it's written in stone. Not only are their figures far from all inclusive, they're also misleading since bears on Prince of Wales and many other tidewater accessible locations go much higher. I'd say a more inclusive figure would be 150-800 lbs.

Is every light using a particular emitter putting out the same amount of light? Of course not, and bears don't always weigh their maximum, nor do products with maximum stress ratings fail the moment that maximum rating is reached.

This bear does not appear to be overly large and I'd be guessing it's 200-300 lbs.

Monocrom said:

Problem is, you get some Neo-Hippie / Animal-rights activist who decides it would be great to commune with nature, by giving "Yogi" a snack. :ironic:

Click to expand...

Actually, the group you mention would be the least likely to give food to bears, as they're probably aware of the dangers it poses to the animal. The most likely offenders are weekend warriors who don't properly store their food in bear proof lockers, dispose of trash properly, or leave coolers in plain view in the car. Yes, the bears know what coleman means.

But if you read on you will find that it was discovered the image had in fact been edited in Photoshop. I draw my own conclusion.

Anyone skilled enough in photoshop to form such a complex image probably knows how to erase signs of tampering (it's not at all hard). They could have just cropped or enhanced it.

Bear seems to be unsupported by anything or at least in a very strange position in frame 1.

No sign of swaying of bird feeder or rope in other frames, especially between frames 2 & 3, bird feeder in almost same position. With a bear moving along on such a thin diameter rope, there would be significant movement of the rope and feeder. Bear is obviously moving a lot, it is in drastically different positions in each frame.

I presume there is bird seed in the feeder. Would a bear risk injury from a fall from such a thin rope, and exert such effort in summer for bird seed when other natural food sources would be available? Obviously there are, the bear does not appear to be thin or emaciated in any way. I could understand a bear trying this in the middle of a harsh, barren winter, but judging by all the foliage, these photos are obviously during warmer/summer months.

Here in Vermont I see bears fairly often on my property. Bears sure can get into things if you create an environment where there are things around that will attract them. The rule of thumb here is to remove or empty bird feeders around the beginning of April before the local bears wake up from hibernation with a ravenous appetite. One time, a few years ago, I had a 300 pounder on my deck standing hunched over the bird feeder (that I was too lazy to remove) that was mounted six feet from the floor of the deck. He yanked the feeder off the steel pole it was on and ended up lying on his back shaking it into his mouth. This amusing event happened about four feet away from me through the sliding glass door leading out to said deck. Generally speaking though, black bears like we have here in Vermont tend to be more afraid of humans than we are of them and unless one does something really stupid, like mess with a female with cubs for example, you are very unlikely to be harmed by one. They will only attack if they feel threatened. Brown bears such as grizzlys are a whole other matter.

Here are some photos of a beautiful specimen that showed up on my property exactly one month ago. He was attracted to the fresh rye grass that had been planted by my pond after an excavation project.

sabre7 said:

I presume there is bird seed in the feeder. Would a bear risk injury from a fall from such a thin rope, and exert such effort in summer for bird seed when other natural food sources would be available?

Click to expand...

Yes. I have seen a similar situation in person. Our feeder was not as high off the ground and the bear was only suspended for 3-4 meters before it could touch the ground and just bat at the feeder.