Bears. Advice needed.

[Bobsterama]

Hi Guys,

I'm spending a month in the Carpathian mountains in May of this year, and I just wanted to see if you have any tips, advice or experiences relating to bears.

My motivation is that I'd like to see them from a nice safe distance, but on the othert hand I don't want to wake up to find one eating my legs.

The Carpathians are home to brown bears, which are theoretically the same as the ones you get in the US. The difference is that in Europe we're generally not allowed to carry guns around, so they are less afraid of people. They even come to scrounge around the trash in some Romanian towns.

Any input would be greatly appreciated as I frankly don't have the first clue about these animals.

Thanks!

[BigBossMan]

http://www.mountainnature.com/wildlife/ ... unters.htm

[grennels]

Are bottle rockets and roman candles allowed?

[Power Fail]

See if you can get your hands on some of Troy Hurtubise's bear armor.


Maybe I'm a wuss, but if I couldn't have a firearm appropriate for that level of threat, I'd likely be far away with some top of the line binoculars. Bear mace, noise makers, those are cool and all (and take them with you regardless of how close you PLAN on getting, in case you get surprised), but certain things you just don't screw with or get so close to as to disrespect their power. Bears are one of those things.

[nateted4]

Make lots of noise as you hike in order to avoid sneaking up on an unsuspecting bear.
Keep all food and food like substances (toothpaste) away from the camp, in a suspended bear bag.
Do not go to sleep smelling like food.
Keep a clean cooking area (no spills) and clean out your pots well away from camp.
Enjoy! It looks like a cool place to be.

[bonanacrom]

Simple fact about bears, if it wants to eat you, you'll be eaten. Don't smell good or interesting to the bear. No cologne or scented soaps and watch those fruity smelling shampoos.

[Murf]

Simple fact about bears, if it wants to eat you, you'll be eaten. Don't smell good or interesting to the bear. No cologne or scented soaps and watch those fruity smelling shampoos.

A wiser feller than myself once said, "Sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes...well...he eats you."

[CitizenZ]

Avoid any areas or bears where they are used to getting food from humans. We have a saying "A fed bear is a dead bear". They become aggressive towards humans once they associate humans with food, they simply view you as food. Very dangerous. Those bears must be destroyed. Now they try hard to keep garbage and human food away from the bears or eventually those bears must be killed or they will kill humans to get their food, or simply eat you.
Any bears that hunt for human food will hunt and eat you. This is abnormal behavior for a bear. They do not normally "hunt" prey. Now they are trained to hunt human smell for food.

[Regular Guy]

Keep your bear/pimp hand STRONG!

[TacAir]

FWIW here (Alaska, we have some bears) I would suggest a couple of things.

No bacon, I don't care how careful you are, you will smell like bacon, and I can smell bacon at quite some dstance, a bear, much further. I don't know what it is with bears and bacon, but bacon grease is the most popular bait hereabouts.
Peanut butter - ditto.

I cook and eat my evening meal, then hike on (usally a mile or more) to where I will be sleeping. Seems to have worked up to now. YMMV.

Enjoy your trip and please, post some fotos when you return (asssuming a bear doesn't get to you).....

[Power Fail]

Thought: what about one of those Orion 12ga flare guns? If you alternated shooting flares and 12ga blanks at a curious bear, I'd imagine it'd get pretty discouraged pretty quickly. The chamber is only like 2 inches long, so you can't fit an actual 12 gauge, say, 00 buckshot round in them, so I can't imagine they'd count as a firearm. You can also say, if questioned, it's for signaling in case you get lost.

[Jamie]

hang your food and toiletries in a bear bag from a tree a good distance from where you sleep

sleep a good distance from where you cook

clean up your campsite before bed, especially around food and smelly toiletries

have a bell or pots/pans to make some noise with if a bear does come into camp, so that you don't surprise it (surprised bear = bad)

you don't have to be perfect, just better than the other campers also in the woods

I live and camp in woods that have lots of bear, and don't have problems with them...the much bigger risk is to your gear/food/sleep from little beasties like squirrels and raccoons and mice



Jamie - nfa

[Meat N' Taters]

Just personally speaking, ANYONE who regularly hikes/camps in areas where bears live is a total badass in my book. Perhaps this is because there are no bears anywhere near where I live, and the worst I have to worry about around here is a bobcat or an ornery boarhog, but I've somehow come to equate bears to Deathclaws from Fallout - huge, unstoppable killing machines.

[BigBossMan]

A can of bear pepper spray couldn't hurt. Like everyone else said, preventative measures are the best.

[Fletch]

Carpathian mountains? Don't worry about the bears, it's the VAMPIRES you need to worry about my boy....

[marbhán marfóir]

Carpathian mountains? Don't worry about the bears, it's the VAMPIRES you need to worry about my boy....

I'd be more worried of the Gypsies personally. if Twilight has taught me one thing, it's that Vampires are pussies.

[aa1pr]

Another simple fact that has not been mentioned of you get any sort of food spillage upon your clothing change it

[Bobsterama]

Thanks guys!

1 - The whole not smelling like dinner thing seems to be a biggie. Hanging grub up far away from the camp is genius. I want to see them if they're there, so I'll put it a km or so down a sight alley and set up the binos.

If I incorporate the eating dinner and then moving on thing I reckon I'll be on to a winner.

2 - I'm not a scented soap kind of guy, and vampires don't bother me, but my wife agrees that Gypsys are a bigger threat. I'll look silly for jumping her shit about being a racist if the fuckers turn me over, so again the eating dinner and then moving on thing's a winner

3 - Noise and gunpowder at hand sounds good to. Romania has Mexican style fiework laws so I reckon i'll be able to pick up some crackers prior to heading off.

Thanks again guys. I'll definitely write a report when I get back (hopefully unmauled) in June.

[AKFTW]

I am going to make a how-to guide for some perimeter alarms I have thought up in a couple of weeks, they would be very helpful to string up if you are going to be camping in any sort of dangerous territory. I will keep you guys posted and put up a link, as I think they could help you out.

[Tireur]

If you are worried about seeing a bear, stay home.

Bears have a lot more crap to worry about than some dipshit wondering if the leather on their Nike's will smell like food. This entire th'd is proof that ZS as a whole isn't mature enough to handle a single bear sighting.


What to do if you see a bear? Wave. If it doesn't run away pour it a drink and keep talking in monotones about the various bear preservation programs going on in your area.
Give it a final salut,slap it on the ass and watch it run into the woods while pouring another drink.

[CitizenZ]

If you are worried about seeing a bear, stay home.
Bears have a lot more crap to worry about than some dipshit wondering if the leather on their Nike's will smell like food. This entire th'd is proof that ZS as a whole isn't mature enough to handle a single bear sighting.
What to do if you see a bear? Wave. If it doesn't run away pour it a drink and keep talking in monotones about the various bear preservation programs going on in your area.
Give it a final salut,slap it on the ass and watch it run into the woods while pouring another drink.

Seems you have no experience with bears that eat human food. Very different creatures than true wild bears. The behavior is very different. Much more aggressive and hostile.

[Black Spruce]

The basics have been covered, but to reiterate:
1. be alert, keep your eyes, ears and nose open.
2. be noisy, most bear incidents result from a spooked, defensive bear.
3. don't travel alone, a bear is more likely to hear two people, and a predatory or curious bear is less likely to approach.
4. store your food, toiletries and other smelly stuff well away from your tent. One thing people haven't mentioned is petroleum products, bears (at least here) are very attracted to gasoline and diesel, and I would presume camp fuel.
5. In the event of a close encounter, don't panic. Bears usually run away. Even when they charge, it's usually a false charge just to scare you.
Predatory attacks are rare, but habituation (eg. garbage dump bears) makes them more common. If you are stalked and attacked, don't play dead, fight for all you're worth, with anything at hand.

Regarding firearms, explosives and the like. Unless you're trained in close-quarters combat, bear spray is much more effective than a gun at making a bear stop short of killing and eating you (based on review of hundreds of incidents in BC, Alberta and Alaska by Stephen Herrero, probably the top expert in bear encounters in Canada).

Finally, I expect your biggest risk is not seeing any bears and being disappointed, not being mauled and eaten. We have an irrational and disproportionate fear of bears.

[coyotebc]

Just personally speaking, ANYONE who regularly hikes/camps in areas where bears live is a total badass in my book. Perhaps this is because there are no bears anywhere near where I live, and the worst I have to worry about around here is a bobcat or an ornery boarhog, but I've somehow come to equate bears to Deathclaws from Fallout - huge, unstoppable killing machines.

The truth is that a lot of people suffer from bearannoya (paranoid of bears). The risk really is very low.
You do need to take proper precautions, but the reality is that there is not a bear behind every tree just waiting to make a snack out of you.

One real good book is this one http://www.amazon.com/Bear-Attacks-Caus ... 158574557X a lot of great information.
More information http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explor ... arsaf.html

[coyotebc]

Some interesting links
http://www.restromania.ro/Interese/Wild ... omania.htm
http://www.udap.com/safety.htm
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailywee ... r_atta.php
http://www.whyte.org/bears/conflict.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/e ... 470979.ece