animals (Bears) and food

[silverz51]

Re: animals (Bears) and food

I have respect for all wild and domestic animals. But I grew up with the bears all around are home. I can tell you about the one that fallowed me down the road as I was walking home when I was in 5th grade. Or the one that woke me up when it was licking my window. How about when a bear ripped the door off are house to get to a bag of trash. And let’s not forget the one that fallowed me when I was out hiking. And there are many, many, many more.

I can't quote my sources, but I distinctly remembering reading that black bears kill more people than Grizzly or Kodiak bears... Particularly in the Northeastern forests.

I think one of the reasons people in the northeast get into trouble with a bear are they don’t know what to do to avoid an attack. I think there are a lot more people out in the woods around here than out west. We have a higher population of humans per square mile in are wood areas than most places brown or grizzly bears live. That means more people out there in the woods. And more people from the cities that don’t know how to avoid attracting bears into camp, or what to do if they do come in. My family has been here in this area for over 150 years. They spent most of their life out in the woods. From working the logging industry to working with the forest service, hunting, fishing, farming small plots of land. And not one has ever been attacked by a black bear.

(I got this from Wikipedia)
Adult males black bear typically weigh between 130–550 lb, while females weigh 33% less at 90–370 lb. North America, black bears were rarely considered overly dangerous. Black bears rarely attack when confronted by humans, and usually limit themselves to making mock charges, emitting blowing noises and swatting the ground with their forepaws. However, according to Stephen Herrero in his Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance, 23 people were killed by black bears from 1900 to 1980. The number of black bear attacks on humans is higher than those of the brown bear, though this is largely because the black species outnumbers the brown rather than them being more aggressive.

So when I say small I am not trying to mislead you. They are big just not huge. If you are afraid that you will experience a bear attack then you should not be out in the woods in the first place.

That's a bit harsh, isn't it? Just because I have a legitimate concern I should stay out of the woods? I lived in WNC for many years, several of those years I lived right in the edge of a bear sanctuary. I often saw their claw marks on the trees and once we were awakened by a bear snorting just outside our bedroom window. Back then I did not know enough to be afraid of anything in the woods so I paid no attention other than to observe the signs.. I've since learned that bears can be a nuisance and dangerous as well. However, that does not mean I'm going to stay out of the woods.

Living in Virginia, we have...well...Black Bears. Here we're having a different type of problem. The diminishing bear territory do to overzealous developers building housing developments (homes that will cost on average $300,000 - $550,000 each) on lands that have been bear stomping grounds for years. We've had three accounts of bears having to be removed from...well, inner-city neighborhoods here in Virginia Beach. The bears are getting to a point of having nowhere to go.
In the Great Dismal Swamp, I never worry, the Black Bears there are more likely to run from you than attack. The swamp bears (as we refer to them) are so allusive, you my spend every weekend in the Dismal Swamp for ten years and never see one...even though on multiple occasions you may have been less than 100 yards from them. Does this mean that I won't carry a gun? Nope...better to have one and not need it, than need it and not have it.

Here in GA, the bears are becoming a nuisance (and a danger) even in the outskirts of Atlanta. It is not so much that the developers have encroached into the bear habitat (although that is true). What seems to be the problem is that the bears are more prolific and have more cubs than they used to. Now there are more young bears around and they find it much easier to feed from peoples houses, trash cans and pets food than to try to compete with big, full grown bears for their territory. This is the main reason (according to people who study these things) why the bears are encroaching into human habitats. Regardless, this usually ends up being bad for the bears. Still, I think that bears who have lost the fear of man can be extremely dangerous, no matter if they weight only 150 lbs. Even a dog that weights 60~80 lbs can maim or kill a person. 150 lbs worth of bear will tear a 250 lb MMA fighter to shreds.

[busere]

Re: animals (Bears) and food

I don't think I can agree on bears being more prolific. The more we develop, the less land there is for the bears and other wildlife. Understand, I'm not a Peta fan at all...I fish, hunt and have a dog. But, land management has suffered at the hands of developers and our corrupt legal system.

[silverz51]

Re: animals (Bears) and food

I did not know this either. I thought that the bears were just being squeezed out of their environment. Then I read a rather extensive article about the issues with bears and coyotes in the 'burbs. Apparently the people who study and work with these animals have discovered that there is a superabundance of these animals near human dwellings. Apparently the easy access to food has changed how they live, reproduce, survive, etc. Bears (and all other wild animals) are very adaptive and quick studies. There is sufficient evidence to support these theories.

[Nickadeamus]

Re: animals (Bears) and food

I was not saying this strait at you. When I said “If you are afraid that you will experience a bear attack then you should not be out in the woods in the first place.” I said it as a statement. I was not implying that you are afraid. Just like me saying “You should never go into the woods with fear. All that will do is give you a bad experience as you look for trouble around every corner and you will not enjoy nature at its true beauty.” I am not implying you have fear of the woods

So I am sorry if you took it the wrong way.

But I do stand by what I did say with that statement and the second one I just made.

[Nickadeamus]

Re: animals (Bears) and food

I need to go back and read all post in this thread again. I want to know how we got off track from the main reason the thread was made.

This gun’s, bear, bear spry, fear, and natures beauty should be in it own thread. We kind of hijacked this thread.

And I am truly SORRY if I offended anyone I was not try to do so.

[busere]

Re: animals (Bears) and food

BTW...I found out why the sheath from my kukri attracts animals...they use animal urin to tan the yak skin in Nepal. GREAT...

Getting ready to DIY a sheath using the two wood halves from the original sheath and a US Navy seabag...err the material from the seabag. Hopefully...the animal attraction will be gone.

[05Kingquad700]

Re: animals (Bears) and food

As the original thread starter (under a now banned username "Shawn Bebout") I am not to worried abou any of my treads getting off track. It is kinda the way a conversation goes.

[silverz51]

Re: animals (Bears) and food

I was not saying this strait at you. When I said “If you are afraid that you will experience a bear attack then you should not be out in the woods in the first place.” I said it as a statement. I was not implying that you are afraid. Just like me saying “You should never go into the woods with fear. All that will do is give you a bad experience as you look for trouble around every corner and you will not enjoy nature at its true beauty.” I am not implying you have fear of the woods

So I am sorry if you took it the wrong way.

But I do stand by what I did say with that statement and the second one I just made.

It's OK, I do have some fear of some wild animals. I'd be lying if I said I'm not afraid. It's just that I think it's OK to be afraid and still participate in activities that entail risk. I have a healthy fear of a lot of dangerous things. It helps to keep me alive and more or less undamaged . I am not offended, but I did think that you were saying that if one is afraid of being attacked by a bear, one should not be in the woods... I understand now that you did not mean that. It's all good, don't give it a second thought

Oh yeah, it's OK to wander off topic a bit. I think it can make the conversation more interesting

[TroyS]

Re: animals (Bears) and food

We mostly do our camping using our Motorhome. In the campgrounds where there are bears, the campground usually provides us with lockers where we can store our food to keep them away from the bears. Every now and then, we would see rangers going around the campground to keep a look out for bears. We also make sure that we take time to clean up and wash everything before we go to bed at night no matter how tired we are.

Since I'm also planning to take my kids out tent camping every now and then, I'm actually considering of getting that Yeti cooler to take with us.

[Nickadeamus]

Re: animals (Bears) and food

A friend of mine takes a utility trailer when he go’s car camping. On that trailer he bolted a contractor’s job site steel chest where he keeps his food and anything else that will attract animals in to camp, in it. This thing is huge. I asked him why he spent so much money on something like that for camping. But it turns out he purchased it from some person for less than a $100. I can say a lot of people worry about bears getting into their food but around here I think you should be thinking more about raccoons. There are more of them and most I have seen are not afraid of people. They have little hands that can almost do everything we can do. If it doesn’t have a lock on it they can get into it. I have also seen skunks raid a campsite. Are you going to go out and run off a skunk? I’m not.

[busere]

Re: animals (Bears) and food

There are practices that can be used with car camping, that are normal everyday life for backpackers. Hang a Bear Bag approximately 100 yards from a camp site. If you have a campfire, burn all scraps of food and ensure all dishes and utensils are 100% cleaned with BOILING water. I know that you’re thinking, “WHAT!!! How am I going to hang my cooler!?” Even things that we think of as being hermetically sealed, bears can still smell. If a bear wants in a Yeti cooler, a bear gets in a Yeti cooler. As for raccoons, a properly hung bear bag will keep them out as well. But there’s no reason you can’t use the same practices for car camping. Unless you’re taking a refrigerator load of food and stuff that needs to be kept refrigerated like bacon. Remember...to take stuff like that; use a small cooler that you can hang. You don’t have to take a monster cooler. No food in camp, means no critters in camp…well 99% of the time, there are always exceptions. We have a member of the OCB (Obsessive Compulsive Backpackers) that got a hole chewed in her tent for a CANDY WRAPPER. So, even candy wrappers are not safe from animal attraction. Good housekeeping is always the best policy when in (or not in) bear country.

[immortal_ben]

Re: animals (Bears) and food

What my friends and I do, since we are nearly always in bear country, is to leave our food in a backpack a ways from camp. We leave all of the zippers open so that if something does want the food, they will not need to destroy the pack to get it out.

Generally, my dog will growl and bark if a wild animal is nearby at night, so that helps keep the bruins away.

[kurzi]

Re: animals (Bears) and food

I camp primarily in Ontario Canada. We have lots of black bears. My experience is that they're more of a nuisance to people that camp in more populated areas because they know food is available there.

For that reason I prefer to camp in the back country. They have less exposure to humans there and tend to stay away. We do our cooking in the camp area but we don't leave food laying around. We store uneaten food several hundred feet away from our camp in the night strung up on a line between two trees. This is so a bear can't simply climb a tree to get at the food within.

I also make an effort to use dehydrated foods whenever possible. I have it in my head that it's more difficult for animals to smell, and therefore (I hope) they don't come after it.

As mentioned above I think that smaller animals like racoons are a bigger problem generally, but the consequences of having a bear around can be significant.

I also don't keep anything in my tent that smells good. Toothpaste, deodorant, etc... It all gets tied up in the trees.