[pct-l] bears & food

[csiechert at hotmail.com (Carl (1977 Kelty Kid))]

> speaking out. I guess it boils down to whether or not you 
> think bears should be afraid of us or not. Some people don't 
> want them to be so they can get up close and gawk at them and 
> get close up pictures. That is why they once had open dumps 
> in Yosemite  Hope this makes sense. 


Yep, it does. I think the pro-can camp--hikers and park managers--also
agrees that bears should be afraid of us. But achieving that is impractical,
especially in the short term. It'll require a lot of conditioning, which is
expensive. And without also eliminating the food source (i.e., bear cans or
equivalent), you won't see results for a while (if ever). (Will someone have
to train each bear, or will they tell their friends and cubs?) OTOH,
providing a surefire method for keeping food from bears gets the food out of
their paws immediately, and they'll eventually lose interest after they
determine that the odds of scoring food are low.

Of course, there is no "surefire method"; even if the cans are 100% secure,
there will always be some noncompliance and misuse. Perhaps the best
solution is to do both: require use of the best available food storage
technology _and_ educate the bears.

Btw, for the past seven years, they've been using rubber bullets, dogs, and
fireworks to scare off bears in Mammoth Lakes. I don't know how successful
it's been, but if you Google "mammoth bear rubber bullets" you'll get a
number of sites with more info. The site of the guy who's implementing the
program there (and elsewhere) is http://www.bearaffairs.com/

Happy New Year,
Carl