| Hikers and backpackers, you can save a bear by | | | | swatting and hooking, you were more than ready for a |
| modifying the way you handle your trail food. The food | | | | hearty breakfast and far more than unwilling to share it |
| that you take with you to the wilderness can be lethal | | | | with a bear. |
| to bears. That's right. Your food could spell the death | | | | My brother and the rest of us were way too |
| sentence for one of these wild creatures. No, it is not a | | | | exhausted that night to even think about such a taxing |
| problem of a bear's digestive system not being able to | | | | enterprise, having arrived at our campsite extremely |
| handle human food. If that were the case, the problem | | | | weary and well after dark. So he did the next best |
| would not be so acute. | | | | thing that his muddled mind could think of. He put what |
| On the contrary, many bears love the food that we | | | | he figured to be a safe space between his food and |
| find palatable. And therein lies the problem. | | | | his tent. Good thing, but not good enough. |
| Here is an often too frequent scenario. A bear gets | | | | DRASTIC MEASURES |
| the taste for human food and starts increasingly to | | | | Bears, especially black bears of California's Sierra |
| crave it. His appetite for our kind of nutrition becomes | | | | Nevada mountain range, have become a lot smarter |
| so acute that he gets aggressive and dangerous in his | | | | than they were 40 years ago. This is true to the |
| quest for the food of man. As in all too many cases, | | | | extent that, in many places in the Western United |
| he could become so aggressive that he will have to | | | | States, drastic measures have had to be taken to not |
| be killed for your safety and mine. The bear's fault? | | | | only protect your food while you hike, but to also |
| Not really. | | | | protect the lives of bears. |
| BALANCING ACT | | | | We humans are no physical match in this fight over |
| I remember waking up and finding my brother's mauled | | | | food with a bear that has been habituated to our |
| and shredded backpack lying at the edge of our camp. | | | | sustenance. And with its sense of smell being 100 |
| I also recollect our consternation at finding all the food | | | | times stronger than that of a dog (one can only guess |
| having been filched by a hungry bear. Fortunately it | | | | how much stronger that is than the sense of smell of |
| was our last night on the trail and there was enough | | | | a human being), hoping that a resident bear will not find |
| food among our group to keep everybody going until | | | | your food is an exercise in futility. |
| we reached the Yosemite Valley floor. Even more | | | | SOLUTION: BEAR-RESISTANT FOOD CANISTERS |
| fortunate is the fact that my brother had the presence | | | | So, what is the answer to the bear problem with |
| of mind to not keep the food inside his tent. That could | | | | regard to our food? |
| have spelled disaster. | | | | The best current answer is bear-resistant food |
| Forty years ago, when this story took place, the | | | | canisters. Bears on a number of high traffic trails in |
| prevailing wisdom was to hang your food as far out | | | | California, for instance, now associate these handy |
| on a tree branch as you could to keep it out of the | | | | devices with lost luck in obtaining tasty food. So they |
| reach of bears. Hopefully there was such a tree | | | | tend to pretty much leave them alone. One bear, |
| nearby. | | | | according to my daughter, who hiked recently in |
| The idea was to tie a small rock to the end of a string | | | | Yosemite National Park, on finding a bear-resistant |
| and throw it over a tree branch which was neither too | | | | canister in her camp, batted it about for awhile, tried to |
| high for you to lob the rock over nor so low that the | | | | gnaw her way into it without success and then ambled |
| bear could swat down your grub. Then you tied a | | | | off disappointed and still hungry. |
| nylon rope to the string and pulled it over the branch. | | | | In many wilderness areas, bear-resistant canisters are |
| On one end of the rope, you tied your food sack and, | | | | mandatory. These areas include National Parks, |
| on the other end, a rock to counterbalance it. After | | | | National Forests and other wilderness areas, especially |
| that you took a stick and pushed the bag of food that | | | | in the western states. Be sure to check the rules in the |
| was on the end of the rope up as high as you could, | | | | particular wilderness area where you plan to hike. |
| higher than a bear could reach, all the while hoping that | | | | SAVE THE BEARS |
| the rock didn't come down low enough for the wily | | | | So, please don't be sloppy with your food |
| bear to grab and gnaw off. | | | | management in the wilderness. Save a bear's life as |
| The next morning, the trick was to reach the food | | | | well as your own food. Invest in a bear-resistant |
| sack yourself, if indeed it was still there. By the time | | | | canister. It's the right thing to do. What's good for you is |
| you were finished with your wild dance of leaping, | | | | good also for the bears. |