When venturing into the wild, one of your primary concerns may revolve around keeping bears away from your campsite. This article has been curated precisely for this purpose, equipping you with the knowledge to camp and backpack in the woods with an added sense of safety and confidence.

As you immerse yourself in the beauty of the wilderness, encountering wildlife and stepping into their natural habitat is an awe-inspiring experience. However, it’s essential to be mindful of potential risks, especially when it comes to encounters with bears.

North America boasts a diverse array of wildlife, making hikes, camping trips, backpacking, and fishing excursions a truly captivating experience. Yet, among these majestic creatures, bears stand out as one of the most formidable and potentially dangerous animals.

In this article, we will delve into essential tips and techniques to keep bears away from your campsite during your woodland adventures. Armed with this invaluable knowledge, you can venture into the woods with a heightened sense of security, ensuring a safer and more enjoyable outdoor experience.

Understanding Different Types of Bears

It’s rather important that you can determine what type of bear it is when you come across one in the wilderness. By knowing what kind of bear is you can learn how it behaves which will allow you to handle the situation accordingly.

Blank says that there are 3 different species of bears in North America which are the black bear, Brown grizzly polar bears button last year traveling fire into the Arctic or Alaska you probably will not ever run into a polar bear camping it is very uncommon so for the sake of this article we will be dis discussing black bear and the grizzly bear.

The Black Bear

• The most common bear in North America
• In 50 states in America and 10 provinces in Canada
• Smaller than the other species which are grizzly and polar.
• Normally gentle creatures that are adjustable animals and mostly act shy towards humans
• You can find normally in thick wooden areas wherever they can find food.
• Normally are black yet some can have brown or light-colored fur.

The Brown Bear

• The most dangerous mammal in North America.
• There are 2 different species of grizzly 1 being the Alaskan Brown bear and a grizzly bear.
• The larger of the 2 is known to be the Alaskan Brown bear.
• They live in the northwest power of the United States in Western Canada.

How To Determine What Type Of Bear?

Now here’s the thing you’re going to be wondering how do I tell if it’s a black bear or a grizzly bear? And there are a couple of good indications you can go on which will indicate the type of bear now just by looking at it you will see the size of the bear they have a shoulder home the Grizzlies do compare to a black bear this is one thing you will notice. You will notice a huge shoulder lump and a big muscular arm that looks powerful the huge muscles actually allow them to dig in-store buried food.

How Bears Behave

The most important thing you can do to avoid a bear before heading out into the Woods is to read up on how bears behave.

Bears are already in their natural habitat so you have to remember they are animals and wild ones at that so they can be unpredictable that they might do and how they might act towards people especially.

No there are a few important aspects every outdoor enthusiast and camper must take into consideration about bears. No, the first misconception is that bears 100 people which day do not hunt people. Actually, bears normally try to stay as far away as humanly possible from us but when we do meet with the bear it’s most of the time we come across a bear scouting for its food bears are not that aggressive yet they are known to be curious like cats.

And that standing on its legs in its hinds means not feeling aggressive. What it does mean though is the bear is trying to get a better look at what’s happening around him.

Since there’s can be so curious they May 10 to focus on the unknown object or follow a certain smell like food out a campsite or a certain deodorant perfume type of smell. They tend to get curious and then they go out to seek what that unknown smell might be so one thing that is important here is to make sure the bear knows you are around so you do not surprise him. There are other things we need to think about here and we will go over them and just a moment.

Some other behaviors that you should know about are bears are not territorial creatures and you can find them being most active between 6 and 7 AM and end near sunset.

A black bear’s behavior is totally different than a grizzly bear’s end polar bear. For example, a black bear can climb a tree and do it very well and sometimes ever be seen on branches high up in the tree. Brown bears Grizzlies are not usually very good climbers yet they can climb a tree if they really need to. Black bears are quiet and usually will just run away if it runs into a person and Brown grizzly are more likely to be aggressive to defend themselves.

How to keep bears away from the campsite

1. Campsite Location

You should try picking a place that wouldn’t look like a good place for bears. You can look around to see if there are any signs of bear tracks, damage to trees, or bear crap.

2. Distance between food and tent

Make sure to keep your food and storage on the opposite side of your campsite.

3. No smells near the tent

Bears have one of the best scents for wild animals and so it’s important not to have any strong-smelling bears in your tents as this could draw attention to bears. Everything has a scent so it’s important not to store food in a tent or anything that has a strong scent.

When backpacking and camping on foot you can go with another option here. You can hang your food up to a tree to make sure bears can’t reach it. You will want a waterproof and scent-proof bag hanging on your rope.

If you are just camping in your car then you should pack all of your gear into your car trunk and keep windows rolled up all the way of course.

4. Change clothes often

Especially when cooking you should change your clothes. It doesn’t matter if you can smell yourself or not, bears can smell you and if you cook up a nice meal and then get smoke all over your clothes the bear is going to be able to smell a nice tasty meal. So, it is advised to make sure you bring a separate pair of clothes for when you cook or for when you sleep.

5. Washing Camping Utensils

Here is a no brainier and common sense would tell you to do this anyways. But, you should wash your cooking supply directly after using it to leave no trace of food or odors getting carried into the wind.

6. What you want at night

You will need bear spray and a flashlight. If you hear anything that goes bump in the night outside and you will probably want to check on what it is You can use your flashlight to light up the surrounding area and if you have bear spray you can use that if you are attacked by anything.

What happens if you do run into a bear?

If you run into a bear in the wilderness then you need to know how to handle that to best avoid seeing a bear when you are camping. There is always a chance you might run into a bear doing anything outdoors and here are the things you will need to know when how to keep bears away from the campsite.

Tip 1: You should never run from a bear. Do not turn your back on a bear and start running. This could make the bear attack you out of natural instinct.

What you need to do is slowly back up from the bear.

Tip 2: Try and make yourself look as large as you can and make a lot of noise. If you are with friends or kids you can get close together to make yourself look bigger and you can put your kids on your head to appear bigger to the bear.

If that doesn’t work you will need to use your spray on the bear.