When you go camping, you will face a variety of problems. After you’ve taken care of everything else and chosen your campsite, you’re maybe left with one problem. Bears may be a significant issue when camping.
If you go camping in a bear-infested region, ensure you have all the information on how to keep bears away from campsite. Bears are not to be taken lightly since they may be harmful.
To ensure your safety, make sure you know different strategies for keeping them away. If one method does not work, you may quickly switch to another.
How To Keep Bears Away From Campsite?
You may quickly know whether you have bears in your region if you see their footsteps or waste. Bears are scared of humans and avoid encounters at all costs, yet they cannot resist food. That is why bears may come to your campground for meals.
Bears will naturally leave your area if you are not carrying food and if they detect your presence unless the bear is sick or food is limited. If you are unseen by a bear, you should do the same: leave the area without being observed.
Human food, pet food, animal feed, waste, cooking kits, cooking utensils, cooking oils, stove and lantern fuel, unopened canned drinks, cosmetics, moisturizer, toothpaste, bird seed, and a hummingbird feeder all attract bears.
These are some key measures to follow to avoid engagements with bears:
Plan Your Campsite:
Make sure to pick a campground that is unattractive to bears. Check the surrounding area for scratched trees, tracks, or bear dung before putting up camp. Discarded food is also a sign that you should move your tent.
Bringing a dog on a camping vacation in the bear area is also not recommended. If a bear comes across your campground, your dog will likely start barking, irritating the bear and prompting an attack.
Some campers employ the “Bear-Muda Strategy” to repel bears away from their campgrounds. It involves building a triangle around the campground. The tent is set in one corner, and the other two corners are used for cooking and storing food.
In this tactic, it is also essential to pitch the tent upwind from the food storage and cooking locations and to allow around 100 yards between corners.
Lock Up And Hide Your Food:
The best technique to keep and hide your food from bears depends on where you’re camping. Some national parks, for example, ban campers from using bear hangs (food hung from a tree), whereas others do. Before you camp, make sure you read the park rules.
In general, having metal food lockers at your park’s campground is the best approach to keep bears out of your food. Without it, you should keep your food in a well-made protective cases that wildlife cannot easily break into. Ensure your food is out of sight when you lock it in your car.
Maintain A Clean Campsite:
Maintaining a clean campsite is critical to keep bears away. Cleaning ensures that nothing that might attract a bear is present in your sleeping space or tent. The simplest method for achieving this is to keep all food stored away from the tent.
Ensure you do not eat in the sleeping area, and ensure your tent contains no toothpaste, food, or utensils. Moreover, ensure the cooking and food storage area is 100 yards away from your sleeping tent.
Use BEARmuda Triangle:
Bears want to avoid you as well. Therefore, they will most likely bother you if they smell something to eat. We just spoke about putting your food somewhere other than your tent, somewhere bears can’t get to, but what about when you’re cooking or eating? Bears have an excellent sense of smell, and the feel of food cooking over an open fire may go far.
This is when the BEARmuda triangle comes in…a cheesy name for an essential concept. The idea is simple: imagine your sleeping room, kitchen area, and food storage area as three points on a triangle.
Each place is 100 yards (300 feet) apart, which equals 100 large steps from one spot to the next. It guarantees that if a bear is drawn to a smell in your camp, it will remain safe from you and your tent.
Change Your Clothes After Cooking:
When you’re cooking, the smell of food fills the whole room. Your clothing is no exception, as they tend to absorb a lot of the scent! If you wait to address this issue, you’re nothing more than a walking menu in the eyes of a bear.
When you’re through dealing with food for the day, change your clothing. Remember that simply changing your clothes will not keep the bears away… You must remove them far from your tent.
If you store your dirty shirts and pants in a tent, you’d be better off simply wearing them! Stuff them in your bear bag or other location far away, and leave them there until you’re ready to move on.
Use Of Bear Fence:
A bear fence is also an effective technique to keep bears away from your campground. A bear fence is a basic, physical, lightweight, and portable electric gate that keeps bears out of your campground.
In this situation, you must use a portable fence when camping. It is not heavy, making it easy to transport. If you go camping regularly, this is a beautiful technique for you. The fence is enough since it produces up to 6,000 volts of electric power whenever a bear touches it.(More on this at the end of the article)
Have Bear Spray With You:
When camping in a bear-infested region, bear spray is also a good idea. Always have bear spray with you and keep it in your tent. The events of the night are always unpredictable.
You may do everything right, or you can do nothing at all and yet have bears show up anyway. You need a quick and effective strategy to eliminate the bears.
Bear spray works effectively because it scares bears away quickly. Bear spray is a quick emergency approach if bears attack you at your campground. It is also simple to transport and utilize.
Suitable Disposal Of Waste Food:
Thinking of hiding leftover food or simply throwing it away in the bushes? Please do not risk it. Waste food, wrappings, and other items must be handled properly if you wish to keep bears as far away from your campsite as possible.
Bears can detect food even when hidden, attracting them back to your campsite. At the same time, when you throw food away, you make the same error that bears can smell and trace back to your campsite.
As a result, always have bear-proof containers to help you properly dispose of your food. Bear-resistant cans are essential since they can handle garbage to the finish.
Carry An Air/Bear Horn:
Air horns are another method for keeping bears away. If bears surround your campground, you may keep them away using an air horn. Air horns are both highly effective and easy to use.
You need to be prepared to blow your air horn at the right moment. An air horn is similar to a horn, except it uses compressed air to make a loud noise. A bear is constantly disturbed by loud noises, which scare them away.
Bear horns come in a variety of shapes and sizes. However, lightweight, portable air horns are better for camping since they are easier to use. On cans, there are little air horns powered by compressed air.
Make Some Noise:
Bears, like many humans, hate surprises. Making a lot of noise around your campfire is an easy technique to keep them at bay. Come around the campfire with your guitar and sing some tunes. Bring a noisemaker with you and shake it now and then. If there are any bears around, you will shock them into running.
Tip: If you intend to be away from your campground for a lengthy period, try leaving a radio on to give the impression that someone is present. Listen to a chat program on the radio. Music does not discourage bears; only human voices do.
We mentioned above that one of the method used to keep bears away was to install an electric bear fence, to make it easier for you, we researched and tested a specific bear fence with spectacular results. The following bear fence is highly praised by campers, hikers, backpackers, etc. This bear fence is the:
Best Camping Bear Electric Fence —– Udap BEF Bear Shock Electric Fence:
The Udap BEF Bear Shock Electric Fence is the only commercially available electric mesh fence kit that satisfies USDA Forest Service requirements. This electric bear fence uses top-notch materials to produce an effective, portable electric mesh fence that runs on batteries.
This portable electric fence system protects you and your belongings inside the fenced area from bears. Everything needed to create a safe space from bears is included in this 8,000-volt, 0.11-Joule electric fence. Almost everything and everyone may benefit from this electric bear fence’s protection.
Pros:
• Not too heavy or bulky.
• All the parts are pre-packaged and need your assembly.
Cons:
• Not ideal for use on hard ground.
Conclusion:
Keeping bears away from your campsite is easier than you imagine. All you need to do is stay out of their path and offer them no reason to approach you. Keep your food and aromatic things out of the reach of any beast looking for a free meal. No food or drink should ever be left behind, and it’ll keep you and your family safe. Thanks for reading. If you think I forgot something or if you simply want to share a story or some advice, feel free to leave your comment below. Be safe and Have fun.!