Cooking under tarp/near hammock

[MacEntyre]

...black bear is ...probably more likely ...to go for the kill.

That kind of speculation cannot help you. My wife had a professor who taught about low probability diseases. He always said, "It's never rare when it's in your chair."

Next time you have a staring contest with any bear in the woods, just assume he's a killer bear, ok?

Be safe.

[lori]

I have also heard some will spray pepper spray around camp to deter bears,,, um, it don't work. Sprayed in the face, yea, sprayed on a nearby stump, it smells like food.

Using pepper spray, remember a few tips: Make sure the nozzle is facing AWAY from you. Make sure the wind is not blowing in your face. Make sure that "Bear" isn't your hiking partner coming back from a poo.

As you say - the pepper spray is only a deterrent when applied directly to the mucous membranes of the bear. Eyes, nose, mouth, and in sufficient quantity. Spray it around camp and they'll be around to check out the interesting smell. If used near camp, I'd be packing up to bug out - no sense in sticking around. Take the gear home for a good washing. Don't get second hand bear spray on you handling gear.

And if you do manage to shoot yourself, you'll probably scare the bear away with all the howling, screaming and wailing. I once got the most minute amount of pepper spray in my eye via the tip of my finger - OMG, I nearly drowned myself trying to rinse it out.

[Rat]

As you say - the pepper spray is only a deterrent when applied directly to the mucous membranes of the bear. Eyes, nose, mouth, and in sufficient quantity. Spray it around camp and they'll be around to check out the interesting smell. If used near camp, I'd be packing up to bug out - no sense in sticking around.

very true, read this: Proper use of pepper spray. I also watched a video during a SAR training class that had some actual video footage of bears rolling in an area of ground that had been sprayed. They also had two backpacks, one sprayed and one not sprayed, the bears ALWAYS went to the sprayed pack first! The video was of Black bears not Brown.

[oldgringo]

A 10 gauge slug applied directly to the mucous membrane works, too. Or so I'm told.

[Hawk-eye]

A 10 gauge slug applied directly to the mucous membrane works, too. Or so I'm told.

You had to get the last of my coffee to almost come out my nose didn't you Dave! Ha ...

[southmark]

I'm curious as to what people who are concerned about odors under or on their tarp do about the odors on their breath. After you brush your teeth you still have toothpaste order and probably lingering food orders.

At Philmont Scout Ranch where they are very bear cautious about bears, cooking is done under a dinning fly right in camp.

I have always slept with my food in my tent when I tent camped and under my tarp now when I hammock camp. I have never camped in grizzly country and would handle my food differently if I did.

[MacEntyre]

A 10 gauge slug applied directly to the mucous membrane works, too. Or so I'm told.

I would think that an entire magazine of whatever pistol caliber was handy, similarly applied to the face of the bruin, would be a good bet.

[vitamaltz]

I've only played around with them a little bit, but a high-quality sub-8 ounce slingshot can be really unpleasant for most creatures.

[Jodster]

I have never cooked under my sleeping tarp. I have never cooked under the vestibule of my tent. I do not keep anything but clothes in my tent or under my tarp. Food is prepared and stored away from sleeping areas.

Why take a chance with an animals instincts? Does anyone know for sure what their intensions are 100% of the time? If someone could tell me what they are going to do, then I would certainly know where I stand and act accordingly. Because I don't know what they intend to do, I create a level of comfort for myself by reading what the experts advise and making a set of rules for myself. It is up to the individual to determine those boundries.

Do my clothes smell like food? Likely. Does my coat smell like the candy bar I carried all day? Probably. But I don't thnk there is a way to be completely free from scents that would peak the interest of a nearby animal.

Random acts happen (aka s#$% happens) and are glorified by articles and television. I too have heard that you play dead for a Grizzly bear and fight a Black bear. But some of these articles have also told stories of Grizzly bears that have been scared off by yelling and Black bears that only stopped mauling a teenager when he curled into a ball and played dead.

[BillyBob58]

Seems like everything I've read that makes mention of bear attacks, has always said if brown bear attacks, play dead. If black bear attacks, fight for your life.

That goes with what I have read that a black bear attack is ( at least some who write about bears seem to think this) more likely to be for the purpose of predation than is a Griz attack. Either one can kill you quite easily, whatever their reason for attack.

Its exactly this kind of story above that gets everyone bent out of shape and not paying attention. The simple fact is that several, tens of thousands of people go into bear territory every year and there are very few incidents of attack and harm being done by bears. 99.9% of the time they are at the most a nuisance. Every once and a while a bear goes crazy just like postal workers, cheated on spouses, crack addicts, drivers in rush hour, etc etc etc.

+1 on what Lori had to say and i'm assuming when you say brown bear you mean grizzly as like jeff said black bear come in a few colors.

Well, I hope the above story will not cause any one to NOT pay attention, but hopefully just the opposite. It certainly won't work that way for me, it will keep me paying attention if I am in bear country, black, Griz or both. I don't plan to get bent out of shape over the quoted true story, but I will keep paying attention and not dismiss bear precautions just because no Griz are around, but "only" black bears. I hope that is the message others will take from the report.

Stories about predatory black bears are not hard to find. When I say predatory, I mean that when bear "experts" look at attacks that have occurred and try to figure the cause, what went wrong to cause the attack, they seem to be far more "predatory" attacks from the black bears than in the Griz attacks. I, of course, have no clue, I'm just going by what those who claim to know say.

Personally, I don't care to be mauled by a bear regardless of what might be motivating the bear. Whether it is a black bear looking for dinner, or a really po'ed Griz, or vice versa, either way I am being chewed on by a bear. I think I will take precautions, even in black bear only country.

I bet if we did a search, we could come up with a pretty good number of supposedly predatory black bear attacks in North America. In fact, here is a quicky list of brown and black bear fatalities and best guess reasons why:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._North_America

Now I'm sure more folks die from black bears, than Griz, because there are way more black bears, and they are in more populated areas. None the less: 52 killed last century by black bears, 50 due to brown bears and 5 due to polar bears. 27 total in the last decade, 17 of which were black bears. Of those 17, AT LEAST 11 appear to be clearly predatory in nature.

The only thing unusual or outlandish about the story I copied here is the brazenness of the attack, which was continued despite lots of people coming to help and that there were multiple maulings and 2 fatalities from one black bear attack. A black bear attacking( even stalking) humans for the purpose of eating those people, is not all that unusual among the total of bear attacks that do happen.

The only lesson I take out of that is: Whatever bear precautions a person may choose to take, if any, you might want to take them with black bears as well as Griz. I will anyway, but HYOH every one! But as for me, I won't dismiss a bear as not really dangerous just because he is not a Griz or Polar bear. They ALL can and do kill people, and not just because you surprised them with their cubs or kept a dirty camp. And though it may be a truly rare event, black bears can and do stalk and kill people for the purpose of having a good meal. At least that is what the evidence seems to indicate.