Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 44

Thread: Animal Protection and U + Saftey Risks (Advice Needed)

  1. #1

    Question Animal Protection and U + Saftey Risks (Advice Needed)

    I am new to Wilderness Survival Forums. I plan on making a more formal Introduction soon. On the Introductions forum. At the moment I have a really novice question hopeful not asked too much. The question involves a background and situation.

    Background
    Age 24
    Gender: Male
    Experienced in: hunting, fishing, and knows some edible mushrooms.
    Lacks knowledge in: Navigation, shelter building, and protecting self from animals.

    Situation:
    - Location Canada Manitoba
    - 1 hour drive to destination
    - Unreliable car
    - No cell phone
    - Going alone
    - waiting for Pal (No gun)
    - Camp site 5 min walk from highway.
    - Have food + cooler with ice
    - pop up tent
    - sleeping bag
    - Emergency car kit with Emergency blanket
    - Spare tire
    - Pre-charged battery booster
    - Rod
    - tackle (with knife)
    - Regular lighter
    - shore fishing beside Highway

    So my Main Concern is the common Black Bear. I saw bear and moose tracks near where I plan to camp. Any advice? Also as title states I would like to know any other risks I maybe taking. And ways I could make this trip Safer. Note: taking another person with me is not an option. I will tell my grandmother where I'm going and when ill be back. I would like to leave on this trip June 4 2018 at about 1:00 pm and return before 11:00 pm June 5.


  2. #2
    Senior Member Antonyraison's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Location
    Johannesburg South Africa
    Posts
    1,154

    Default

    I don't know bears... I live in southern Africa.
    So I know hippos, elephants, lions and other such animals.
    But from What I can understand you can bring some bear spray with..
    also making a bunch of noise in bear Areas from what I understand helps drive them away from that area.
    My youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ultsmackdown Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/antonyraison/

    (BOSWA) ELITE SURVIVAL RANGER - BSR/16/05

  3. #3

    Arrow

    Quote Originally Posted by Antonyraison View Post
    I don't know bears... I live in southern Africa.
    So I know hippos, elephants, lions and other such animals.
    But from What I can understand you can bring some bear spray with..
    also making a bunch of noise in bear Areas from what I understand helps drive them away from that area.


    Pretty sure if you get close enough to use bear spray your ****ed anyways. you would have to get it in the eyes and even then will piss it off and kill you. The black bear is mostly more scared of you then you of them. still makes me unconformable not having protection. Noise is good advice except if you are sleeping . . .

  4. #4

    Default

    Hang your food and anything else that has a bear-pleasing odor up in a tree away from where you plan to sleep.
    Bear spray can dissuade a black bear from approaching you. It works on grizzly bears too.
    Wilderness Survival:
    Surviving a temporary situation where you're lost in the wilderness

  5. #5

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by pete lynch View Post
    Hang your food and anything else that has a bear-pleasing odor up in a tree away from where you plan to sleep.
    Bear spray can dissuade a black bear from approaching you. It works on grizzly bears too.
    Cant I just say, "nice teddy bear Don't eat me"

    In all seriousness I posted this to another forum and i got the fallowing answer...

    Use standard procedure for backwoods camping to avoid wildlife encounters. Limit attractants as much as possible, mainly food and cooking smells especially fish. Keep food and other attractants hung from a tree branch out of reach of bears. If there's nothing easy to eat they'll move on. Bring an air-horn and or bear spray. Shooting a bear illegally (no tag/hunting license/out of season) will probably be a bureaucratic PITA.
    Read a bit on black bear behavior and what to do if you encounter one. Black bears are very rarely aggressive in most situations.
    Have a fun fishing trip!


    I found this to be rather helpful. Thank you all as well ^-^

  6. #6
    Administrator Rick's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Central Indiana
    Posts
    58,832

    Default

    Do your cooking away from your sleeping site and store your food either in a bear proof container or from a rope in a tree where a bear cannot reach it. My son borrowed my bear container and found it about 50 meters away from camp one morning. A bear tried to get into it but finally gave up and left. Bear spray does work. It would not be recommended by so many agencies if it didn't. Make noise. Your greatest threat is surprising a bear or encountering a female with cubs. When in bear country I always carried a hand gun and bear spray. Your odds of encountering a bear are small but being prepared is smart. Good luck.

  7. #7
    Senior Member Antonyraison's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Location
    Johannesburg South Africa
    Posts
    1,154

    Default

    It is my understanding the black bear is not as aggressive or as potentially dangerous as the grizzly bear counter part, also by in large a lot smaller also.
    That being said If you catch food or prep food, do it far away from your Camp, stay off Game trails (it basically where any apex predator will go and hunt anyway)
    Store food High up in a container..
    so yeah Other than these things I think many have said I am not sure how else to advise you. I have never had encounters with bears... just warthogs, girrafee, Hippos, elephants and snakes and baboons.. and the odd occasional leopard
    My youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ultsmackdown Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/antonyraison/

    (BOSWA) ELITE SURVIVAL RANGER - BSR/16/05

  8. #8
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2017
    Location
    Victoria, Texas
    Posts
    1,996

    Default

    So, you're going to spend the night in a tent one hour's drive from your house. Don't worry about cooking. Take your food already prepared in as little packaging as possible. Use packaging that can be burned up in the fire (if you're going to build a fire). Have fun. Don't worry about lions, tigers and bears. Oh my!

    Alan

  9. #9

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Marlin_Man View Post
    Shooting a bear illegally (no tag/hunting license/out of season) will probably be a bureaucratic PITA.
    There's a saying: "I rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6."

    That being said, if you follow the advice in the other responses, it shouldn't come down to use of a firearm. But if it does, the above saying definitely applies.
    "The more complex the mind, the greater the need for the simplicity of play." Capt. James T. Kirk

  10. #10
    Senior Member Antonyraison's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Location
    Johannesburg South Africa
    Posts
    1,154

    Default

    I have never carried a fire-arm, not to say Some one in our crew didnt. but so far in about 4 years of going into wild places in southern Africa, we havent had much issue.
    My youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ultsmackdown Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/antonyraison/

    (BOSWA) ELITE SURVIVAL RANGER - BSR/16/05

  11. #11
    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    KY bluegrass region-the center of the universe
    Posts
    10,360

    Default

    Myself and many others have hiked the Appellation Trail and had bear encounters on a nightly basis. Several of us had a firearm but they were never drawn and I never had to kill a bear. Most of us lived but bears did kill two or three that year up in the eastern mountains.

    Follow the advice already posted.

    Hang your food in a bear proof container.

    Do not cook/eat where you sleep.

    I prefer to not sleep in a zipped up sleeping bag like a bear toco.

    Bear spray does work. Get some if you are going to camp in bear country on a regular basis.

    I carry a firearm. I carry it to the grocery store, to Walmart, to the post office, to meet my buds at lunch, to mow the grass in the yard, why would I leave it home when I go camping? In fact, when I go camping I carry a bigger gun!

    If you are more afraid of Canadian bureaucracy than of dying then your government has accomplished its purpose. Good luck with that.
    Last edited by kyratshooter; 06-04-2018 at 11:31 AM.
    If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?

  12. #12
    Administrator Rick's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Central Indiana
    Posts
    58,832

    Default

    A black bear can smell a candy bar wrapper inside a cooler inside a locked car. Even having prepared food in your camp is an invitation to have them join you. It's best to handle the food away from your camp even if its pre-prepared. Look for youtube vids of black bears ripping open cars in Yellowstone or other parks because someone left a candy bar in the car. They have a keen sense of smell and will smell your food from a long way away. If you don't have a bear container then use a bag and rope and hang it from a tree a safe distance away. All food!

  13. #13
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2017
    Location
    Victoria, Texas
    Posts
    1,996
    Last edited by Alan R McDaniel Jr; 06-04-2018 at 08:52 PM.

  14. #14

    Default

    somethingI once read while camping on the natl' elk reffuge in jacksonhole ,wyo
    a phamplet i got from the chamber of commerce, it said
    how to tell the difference between a grizzly and a black bear,?
    the grizzly will shake the tree till you fall out, and the black bear {yoggi)
    will run up the tree to get you. hope that helps.
    coyotes listen to them, like children of the night what music they make.

  15. #15
    Senior Member Phaedrus's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    The Last Best Place
    Posts
    1,510

    Default

    Welcome, Marlin_Man! As others have said, don't keep food in camp or do your cooking where you sleep. Hang your food or use a bear canister. Mors Kochansky beliefs that baseball bat or axe handle to the face will deter bears; I have not tried it but he's serious when saying it. Bear spray is a great idea, take a couple cans if you're able. It does indeed work, but occasionally a bear will return requiring another shot, hence the extra can. If you can carry a firearm more's the better. You're probably right about the red tape but I'd rather deal with that than being eaten. Still, many folks get by with just spray.

    Good luck on the trip, I hope you have a good time.

  16. #16
    Ed edr730's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    somewhere in n michigan
    Posts
    610

    Default

    Bear season will be open until june 17th. We never kept our food or our bear bait away from camp. But I have heard many problems for back packers.

  17. #17
    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    KY bluegrass region-the center of the universe
    Posts
    10,360

    Default

    I was hiking on the AT once, up in the Pisquah National Forest section, and stopped for a break. A speed freak passed while I sat there and spoke as he blazed past, hiking sticks going like airplane propellers and his boots kicking up a rooster tail of dirt.

    A mile or so down the trail I saw bear tracks enter the trail going the same direction I was headed and I soon noticed that the bear's tracks were on top of the other hiker's tracks.

    I do not know if the bear was following him or if the bear was just going the same direction and using the well blazed and foot pounded trail. Anyway, this bear was an avid hiker and remained on the trail until I reached the next established trail shelter to spend the night. The bear tracks turned off the trail just a few yards from the trail clearing, where the fast hiker had already set up his camp and cooked whatever it was he was having for supper.

    I asked him if he saw the bear that was following him for the last 4 miles and his eyes got as big as truck tires. I took him back to the edge of the clearing and showed him where the bear has stopped and watched him as he set up camp, the bear's tracks all over the footprints of the hiker.

    He had been so intent on "covering miles" that he forgot to open his eyes and look around now and then. He was in one of the most beautiful places on earth and was only concerned with how fast he could travel.

    The poor guy had bear nerves for the whole night and I do not think he slept at all. The fact that a bear, I figured the same one, stalked the camp and made lots of noise all night did not help his condition.

    In the Great Smokey Mountain section of the AT they had cages for the hikers to sleep inside at that time. I am not sure if they still do that. The bears from north Georgia to Virginia seem to be the most vivacious and prone to eating the occasional tourist that slathers BBQ sauce all over themselves and then lays down for a nap or decides to have a midnight snack of peanut butter and honey sandwiches while in their sleeping bag.

    I do not ever remember seeing a report of a bear eating a Canadian. It might be that Canadian bears are more picky than U.S. bears.
    Last edited by kyratshooter; 06-05-2018 at 10:25 AM.
    If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?

  18. #18
    Administrator Rick's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Central Indiana
    Posts
    58,832

    Default

    I think American bears are a bit more like junk yard dogs. Canadian bears must have more manners. Everything Canadian seems to have more manners than us. I wonder if Canadian bears speak French? "Pardonnez-moi mais grognez."

  19. #19

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by kyratshooter View Post
    The poor guy had bear nerves for the whole night and I do not think he slept at all. The fact that a bear, I figured the same one, stalked the camp and made lots of noise all night did not help his condition.
    Admit it. That was YOU making all that noise just to scare him.
    "The more complex the mind, the greater the need for the simplicity of play." Capt. James T. Kirk

  20. #20
    Ed edr730's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    somewhere in n michigan
    Posts
    610

    Default

    We've had deer that you could hit with an apple and they would jump back and look for the apple. The deer wasn't afraid because he had become accustomed to us and knew we were a source of food. Many deer do that. Many bear do that too, but when they do, they can become a problem. Its best if they retain their natural suspicion and fear.
    We had a fellow from downstate who had a hunting camp and he fed the bear. We'd play card and sometimes look out the bedroom window at the bear. Sometimes there would be a dozen. An old friend of mine didn't like it much and told him those bear would be a problem because they were becoming accustomed to food by the houses. His fishing camp and landing business wasn't far away. They did become somewhat of a problem after that.
    I think that backpacking areas where there are many people and bears together and the people are a constant source of food, then the bear, as the deer in the above example, will learn quick enough not to be afraid and to look for food where the people are. It would be prudent to consider such bear as completely different animals than you would find in the wild.

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •