[pct-l] Bear Cannister, (and Ursack?)

[dude@coruscant.net (The Dude)]

This is way too long and really absurd, but I wrote it, so I might as well send it.  If you hate the bear topic by now, you'd better delete this now.  Otherwise, read on...

>Sleeping with your food seems VERY dangerous in the Sierra these >days....

Before passing judgement on sleeping with your food, I'd like to know some stats:

1.  How many people have lost their food to a bear while sleeping with it?  I have never heard of one.  Although I did hear a story (from a ranger) about an idiot who left food in his tent while day hiking, then came back to find a bear munching on his grub and was injured while foolishly attempting to take the food back from the bear! Rule: Once the bear has your food, its HIS food.

2.  How many people have been attacked by a bear trying to get food that they were sleeping with?  Again, I have never heard of one.  I am not saying that it doesn't happen, but I have not heard of a case.

3.  If people have been attacked, how many many people have been injured (or killed) by bears due to sleeping with their food?

I have never heard of anyone being seriously injured by a bear in Yosemite.  Here is the only article of a bear attack in Yosemite that I could find which did result in a minor injury: http://www.igorilla.com/gorilla/animal/bear_attack_in_yosemite.html

I should also point out that I found many stories of people killing bears.  Many of them foolsih and irresponsible acts.

Its actually very very rare for black bears to attack people, and even more rare for them to seriously injure or kill people.  No one has been killed in an attack by a California black bear: http://www.urbanlegends.com/animals/bear_attacks.html  
It so rare that there has only been one killing ever in the entire southeastern U.S. (I realize that this is not the PCT area, but it illustrates the behavior of bears): http://www.igorilla.com/gorilla/animal/2000/woman_killed_by_bear_in_tennessee2.html


>The
>combination of more bear canisters and a poor berry crop has yeilded >some
>very agressive bears. 

Actually, the facts show that the trend is that bears are becoming LESS AGGRESSIVE:

1.  Bear Incidents were down 70% in 1999 over 1998: http://www.nps.gov/yose/news_99/bear0914.htm

2.  Bear Incidents were down 40% in 2000 over 1999: http://www.nps.gov/yose/news_00/bear0822.htm

3.  Bear incidents are down over 50% thus far in 2001 over 2000:
http://www.nps.gov/yose/bearf.htm

Are you implying that bear cannisters actually encourage bears to become more aggressive?  That doesnt seem to support your case for their use.

I found no articles indicating that berry yeilds in recent times are less than historical levels.  However, I didn't find any that indicated there were great yeilds either.


If you think like a bear, sleeping with your food makes sense:

1.  Bears know that if they don't eat, they will die.  The lack of grocery stores in the back country and the bears relativley low income makes them treat food as a very valuable and indespensible necessity.  They will defend their food with their life because with out food, they will die.

2.  The bear thinks that you (and all animals) will protect your food with the same vigor that he will.

3.  If a bear encounters you sleeping with your food and he knows (based on his experience) that there are others nearby who leave their food out in the open, he will go bother them, rather than fight you for your food.

Back in 1998, the worst bear year on record in Yosemite, I was not using stealth and camped near Cathedral Lakes along with about 5 other random groups of campers.  My hiking partner and I were sleeping with our food.  I woke up in the middle of the night and saw a bear outside in the full moon looking in the mesh door of our tent.  I stared him down until he went away.  He finally did go away, and never came back.  However, he bothered everyone else in the area all night and I got no sleep due to the whistles and pot-banging that I heard throughout the night. 

On a similar note, why do people scramble and fumble to find pots to bang when yelling works better anyway because it make you appear more aggressive?  IMHO, this is a big part of the problem: People have become so far removed from our natural state that they have become so dainty and unfamiliar with nature that most of us now view other animals as dangerous and ferocious, when the exact opposite behavior (extreme aggression) has put us in the position of dominant species.  The truth is that primitive people armed with little more than sticks and stones have successfully and frequently hunted whales, elephants, buffalo, alligators, lions, panthers, gorrillas, and BEARS.  

Perhaps we have forgotten what the back-country is all about.  If you want to eliminate your risk of a potentially dangerous animal encouter, then stay home.  Personally, I don't want a sterile wilderness experience that has the same chance of encountering a wild animal as sitting in my office on the 18th floor of downtown Houston.

I go to the back country to become one with nature, and if I get killed by a bear while sleeping with my food, then I say that is better than being hit by a bus on my way to work or getting killed by a mugger for a few bucks in my wallet.  I'll tell you one thing: if a bear really wants my food, he will probably win (and if he wants to kill me, he easily could), BUT the bear had better pack a lunch because the fight will be an all-day affair.  And I'll tell you another thing: if more people had that attitude instead of acting like wimps and wondering what to do when they see a bear, then fewer people would lose their food and there would be fewer bear encounters because the bears would still be afraid of us.

sorry, for the rant. :-)

peace,
dude

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