RE: [Paddlewise] Bears

On 23 Jun 2003 at 16:41, Steve Brown wrote:

> How many generations would it take
> for these creatures to loose their terror of humans? In CA, just
> looking at the difference in bear behavior in national parks (hunting
> prohibited), to national forests (hunting permitted), answers the
> question. National parks are plagued with misbehaving bears raiding
> campsites and cars. National forests generally have bear tracks and
> bear droppings, but no bears. 

Do parks have more car camping than the forests?  Certainly bear 
behavior and opportunism are affected by the large numbers of people 
who make it easy for animals to get food.  This is probably much more 
significant than the relatively infrequent encounters that bears 
might have with hunters.  IOW, it isn't the deterence so much as the 
ease of access to food that affects them.

Cliff Jacobson (and others) suggest not hanging food in true 
wilderness.  The justification is that bears will not significantly 
break their pattern of following their own foraging routes and thus 
will not likely find your food unless it's smelly.  If you try this 
in a park, the bears follow a path through the campsites and _will_ 
find your food.  Hence a difference due to the bears being accustomed 
to our behavior.  BTW "smelly" is relative.  Bears are more like 
bloodhounds than humans when it comes to following scents.

In Algonquin, at one campsite near the highway, the chipmunks will 
run right across your plate under your nose and swipe food.  The 
raccoons in most of Algonquin's easy access campsites are quite 
brazen as well (one once followed us up a hiking trail and, when we 
sat to enjoy the view, pulled at the sweater wrapped around one 
woman's waist, made itself a nest and curled up to sleep - did you 
know that contented raccoons purr like cats?).  You'll never see that 
in wilderness - but hunting chipmunks and raccoons isn't very common.

Killbear Provincial Park doesn't have many bear problems.  Now the 
name of the park is derived from a misspelling of the aboriginal word 
for the area and isn't derived from kill + bear.  The reason is not 
due to actions towards bears so much as the fact that the regional 
dump is not far outside the park.  I've never seen a bear in the park 
boundaries, but have seen one at the dump.  Rather that fuss with the 
noisy humans in the park, the bears can browse at their leisure in 
the dump.

No one would reasonably try training a dog with punishment.  Treats 
work wonders and good dogs will work with verbal rewards.  Same with 
bears.  Feed 'em and they keep coming back.  Punish them (hunting) 
won't be as effective.  OTOH, Karelian dogs have been used with 
success as bear deterents in, umm, Yellowknife (or was it Yosemite?).

Mike




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