Introduction
Seeing a black bear can be one of the most memorable
experiences of a wilderness vacation. Bears seem almost human at times, partly
because of their high intelligence and partly because they can stand and sit
like we do. Their diet is also somewhat like ours, so fruit and nut shortages
are problems for them just as they were for primitive people. In years of crop
failure, black bears are almost as quick as chipmunks to overcome their fear of
people and seek out food. And they are extremely adept at getting it. They have
color vision, acute hearing, and a keen sense of smell. They learn quickly and
can remember feeding locations for years. They can climb trees, bend open car
doors, and pry out windshields. They readily swim to island campsites. They
adapt their lifestyles to the availability of food, often becoming nocturnal to
avoid confrontations with us rather than sleeping at night like they usually
do.
How to Protect Your Food and Property
The best way to prevent food pilfering in bear country is to
avoid the bears. That means by-passing campsites with bear tracks, fecal
droppings, and scattered garbage. Bears are regular visitors there. But if you
must camp at such sites, keep a clean camp. The less food odor in your camp the
less chance the bears will linger when they make their rounds. Wash dishes
immediately and dump the water away from the camp. Completely burn any edible
garbage, including grease, rather than burying it or throwing it in a latrine.
Most black bears will not enter a tent with people in it,
but it is still a good idea to keep food and food odors out of tents and
sleeping bags. To be on the safe side, wash food from your face and hands
before going to bed and hang clothing beyond reach of bears if it has food or
cooking grease on it. Perfume may mask human odor, preventing bears from
knowing a person is in the tent.
Bearproof food lockers and
portable bearproof containers
provide the best protection for your food and are far superior to any
alternative.
An outfitter who outfits
hundreds of groups each year switched from canvas food packs to portable
bearproof containers three years ago and says he has not lost any food to bears
since.
Bearproof food containers are
lightweight and their price is competitive with canvas packs.
The next best thing to a bearproof food container is to
store food in the trunk of your automobile or in sealed plastic bags suspended
from a line between two trees. Some campsites have lines or horizontal poles 20
feet above the ground. Sling the food bags
over the line or pole so they hang 5 feet below it, at least 10 feet from the
nearest tree trunk, and at least 12 feet above the ground.
Bears have been known to leap from tree
trunks to snatch food bags, and large black bears can reach up nearly 9 feet
without jumping. Slinging the bag over a
branch is less effective because bears can break small branches and climb out
on large ones. If a branch must be used, sling the bag far out on the tip of a
branch larger than 4 inches in base diameter. Bears sometimes chew through
ropes to get hanging food bags, so it is best to counterbalance the bag with a
second one to avoid tying the rope where a bear can bite it. To retrieve
counterbalanced bags, use a long stick to push one bag up so the other will
descend to within reach.
Most campers do not see a bear, especially in years when
natural food is abundant. But when
natural crops fail, bears recognize some human foods as worth trying. Where bears are camp-wise, hanging food
might be only a delaying tactic to give you time to personally protect it. Pans
hung on the food bag can alert you. Nonburnable garbage should also be hung and
should be packed out when you leave.
Bears learn that coolers, backpacks, food bags, and other
containers might contain food. Keeping empty containers out of sight (in a car
trunk or away from camp) or leaving them open so bears can see that they are
empty will reduce property damage. If the containers smell of food, hang them
with the plastic food bags to prevent bears from carrying them off. Food odors
in empty containers are minimized if the food was packed in plastic bags that
can be taken out of the containers and hung. When leaving camp, tie tent flaps
open so bears can easily check inside.
What to Do If a Black Bear Visits
A black bear in camp requires caution but is not cause for
great alarm. Most are timid enough to be scared away by yelling, waving, and
banging pans. But a few are too accustomed to people to be bothered. Many
people have lost their food and vacation by being timid. Campers experienced
with black bears simply chase them away before the bears settle in to eating a
week's supply of vacation food. They make sure the bear has a clear escape
route and then yell, wave, and rush to no nearer than 15 feet of the bear. This
is especially effective when several people do it together. If alone, a person
might create the illusion of numbers by throwing sticks through the underbrush.
Don't feed the bears or try to pet them. Touching a wild bear can elicit a nip
or cuff.
Black bear mothers may bluff-charge, but they rarely attack
people.
A recent study by the National Park Service showed that
bears sometimes are harder to chase after they have begun eating. Some bears in
that study gave low intensity threats when people slowly approached closer than
15 feet, but all bears that were chased retreated. No visitors were attacked.
People are often more timid at night, but bears retreat at night as well as by
day. Capsaicin spray repellent (bear spray) usually persuades black bears to leave when it
is sprayed into their eyes. Capsaicin, the active ingredient of cayenne
peppers, has long been used by mailmen as a dog repellent. In more than 200
trials, no bear gave any sign of anger after being sprayed, sometimes
repeatedly. Most immediately turned and ran, stopping eventually to rub their
eyes. The repellent irritates the eyes for several minutes but causes no
injury.
How Dangerous are Black Bears?
Black bears can injure or kill people, but they rarely do.
When pressed, they usually retreat, even with cubs. Attacking to defend cubs is
more a grizzly bear trait. (Grizzlies live only in Alaska,
northern and western Canada,
and the Rocky Mountains south to Yellowstone.)
Black bear mothers often leave their cubs and flee from people, and those that
remain are more likely to bluff-charge than attack. It is prudent to use caution when close to
any bear, but chances of being attacked around campsites by any black bear are
small. During a 19-year study of
bear/camper encounters in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota, only two
injuries were reported in 19 million visitor-days. The study included the year
1985 when bear nuisance activity was at a record high. The two injuries were by
one bear on September 14 and 15, 1987, and the bear was killed the next day.
Both black bears and grizzlies can be brown, but no
grizzlies live east of the Rocky Mountains
Unprovoked, predatory attacks by black bears are highly
publicized but rare. Such attacks have
accounted for all 48 deaths by non-captive black bears across North
America this century. Most occurred in Canada
and Alaska
where the bears had little previous contact with people, rather than in and
around established campsites. Predatory
attacks by black bears are usually without bluster or warning. People involved in such attacks can improve
their chances by fighting and using pepper spray. Deaths from such attacks average a little
less than one every two years across the United
States and Canada.
A sign of curiosity, not anger, standing helps bears see and
smell.
By comparison, a person is about a hundred times more likely
to be killed by a bee than by a black bear and a hundred thousand times more
likely to die in a traffic accident. Each year there are many thousands of encounters between black bears and
people, often unknown to the people because the bears slip away so
quietly. A misconception is that
menstrual odors are attractive to black bears. Actually, there is no record of any menstruating woman ever having been
attacked by a black bear, and studies have shown no attraction by black bears
to such odors.
Dozens of minor injuries, some requiring stitches, have
occurred across North America when people
petted or crowded black bears they were feeding or photographing. Under those
circumstances, black bears may react to people as they do to bears with bad
manners, by nipping or cuffing with little or no warning. Also, people who
tease bears with food have been accidentally injured when the bear quickly
tried to take it. Fortunately, black bears usually use at least as much
restraint with people as they do with each other. Unlike domestic dogs, which
often are territorial and aggressive toward strangers, wild black bears are
basically timid.
Most injuries from black bears are minor and result from
feeding, crowding, or petting.
Black bears that want our food sometimes bluff in ways that
appear threatening, as has been reported by campers, picnickers, and
backpackers. Hungry bears that approach
people for food often lack the confidence to approach calmly, and they express
their nervousness and fear by lunging and slapping the ground or a tree,
blowing and clacking their teeth, and exhibiting other blustery behavior. Black bear lives are ruled in large part by
food and fear, and they have several ways of expressing different levels of
fear. Blustery sounds and actions are
done explosively and appear ferocious, but I have never seen or heard of a
blustery bear coming after anyone and hurting them. All blustery bears that I have seen ran away
when pursued.
Black bears have a resonant, human-like "voice"
that they use to express a range of emotions such as fear, pain, pleasure, and
anger. In over three decades of close-up
research, I have never heard a black bear growl, although most bear stories I
have heard include mention of a growl. A
common sound that campers hear is the low, throaty moan of fear that bears
commonly voice when they are treated.
Encounters with bears are remembered and retold for years to
come. Most campers in black bear country never see a bear. Seeing one is proof
that we still have extensive enough forests for this wide-ranging animal.
Keeping a clean camp helps to insulate bears from the effects of our increasing
use of the wilderness for recreation and helps prevent bears from being
needlessly relocated or killed as nuisances.
Editor's Note: Rocky Mountain Bushcraft highly recommends the following consumer products for safe travel in bear country:
BEAR SPRAY: Counter Assault Bear Spray (same spray carried by US Wildlife Protection officials and by members of Rocky Mountain Bushcraft while gear testing in Black Bear and Grizzly country- it's the best in our opinion!). MADE IN THE USA
TRADITIONAL BEAR CANISTER: BearVault Bear Canisters.
These canisters are time tested and well respected in the outdoors community. MADE IN THE USA
ULTRA-LIGHT BEAR CANISTER: Ursack Kevlar Bear Protection Sack. Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC) certified ultra-light Kevlar bear protection canisters. MADE IN THE USA
VEHICLE\CAMP\BOAT FOOD STORAGE CONTAINER: Pelican ProGear Elite Coolers. Lockable ice coolers in various sizes that are Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC) certified. Check out Pelican's
grizzly bear test on one of their coolers! Great disaster preparedness item too-- in RMB's independent tests, a 45 Quart Pelican Elite Cooler held ice for nearly 8 days in hot weather. MADE IN THE USA
ODOR BARRIER FOOD BAGS: OPSAK odor-barrier bags. Built to US military specifications and highly respected among soldiers and serious outdoor adventurers, OPSAK bags are a great way to minimize a bear smelling your food when trekking in the backcountry. MADE IN THE USA
