Camping while hunting, Are Tents Still Safe?

An interesting bear attack happened in Montana this week in the Bob Marshall Wilderness area. The man was attacked at 7:30 am in his tent. The bear, a young black bear jumped on his tent and then ripped it open.

He was able to abort the attack temporarily with bear spray, but the bear returned after his bear spray was gone. Fortunately, a man came by and scared the bear away. Later, the bear was shot and killed only a short distance from the tent.

http://www.examiner.com/article/predatory-black-bear-attack-shows-need-for-guns

With the bear attacks last year near Yellowstone, is bear behavior changing where they are no longer fearful of the scent of man or their campsites? This attack is now considered a predatory black bear attack. Is it safe to use tents when hunting in bear country any longer especially if alone or with only one partner?

X-Rap said:

I have been known to sleep out in the woods without even a tent at times so I'm sure that they are as safe as ever. I can't agree with all DNS put in his response, I do believe that bears have become more acclimated to humans and as the management options for controlling large predators has decreased so have their numbers and the boldness of their actions. We human are ever encroaching but when hunting with dogs and other methods were used the bears had a stronger reaction to the sent and presence of humans whereas now in Colorado for instance our state wildlife agency kills dozens if not hundreds of bears a year that have lived their whole lives without the pressure of hunting dogs and liberal baiting regulations. Instead they have been raised to think of people as a source of food and frequently move into valley communities. The pervasive anti hunting sentiment coupled with Bambi, Poo Bear syndrome and the idea that the state is "handling" the problem doesn't help either.
I prefer to camp with a dog around and belive that one trained properly will put up enough growl and bark but not chase to keep both 2&4 legged prowlers away from camp. I have since lost my dog but when he was alive it was not uncommon for him to sit or lie next to my bag and he seemed awake and alert when ever I woke during the night. I never felt the least vulnerable at night with him in camp.

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+1, that is my take on the entire issue. When I was three years old, my dad took our family camping/hunting near Fairbanks AK with one of his friends. In the early morning hours, a black bear rubbed up against our tent with his paw right near my dad's head. He shouted which woke me up. I still remember the outline of a bear standing upright sideways to me.

He got up, grabbed his .410 single shot shotgun and went outside to see where the bear was. It came back towards him and he wisely shot the shotgun in the air. That was back in 1961. The culprit was the friend who left his rabbits from that day out on the picnic table. Food control in bear country is the name of the game.

However, my questions predispose whether bear behavior has changed and I believe that the answer is yes, because people have changed their behavior in the last 50 years. We lived at the top of O'Malley road in Anchorage and NEVER saw any griz or black bear in our area despite the fact we were in true wilderness area with only a few homes in that area and miles and miles of woods behind our house. Yet today, bear attacks within Anchorage city limits only a couple of miles from where I grew up are quite common today.

Beside the obvious increase in human population, there is also a much different tolerance of bears than we had 50 years ago. I don't believe I am alone in the observation that bears have changed their behavior to accommodate the new human tolerance of their presence.

j1 said:

What do you mean by the question? Tents are no different than they were years ago. Do they give protection from bears is a different question and the answer is obvious.

My wife understood why there was to be no food in our tent, ever. Drop just one little piece of chocolate on the tent floor and it will be ground in and smell forever. Never eat in a tent which you sleep in.

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Actually, tents are different than they were years ago. The most important difference is the self contained floor now the standard of any small "pup" tent. This makes a tent a self contained straight jacket if the bear attacks.

The old days that I remember were tents of that size with no floor. If the tent comes down, and the bear pulls it away, you don't go with it. Folks, there is actually more to my questions than may be evident. In fact, many bear experts today advise tents with no floor in bear country.

rodinal220 said:

Don't know the particulars here but one thing is to keep a tidy camp and DO NOT eat in your tent or shelter. I learned a lot about bears from DR. Charles Jonkel(Griz).Most bear man encounters that go pear shaped involve black bears,just more of them and they have a wide range across the USA.
I don't really trust OC for two or four legs and prefer PB.

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Dr. Jonkel has had an incredible career of great duration and I understand he is the only bear researcher from a generation ago still active in his research. The story I listed is an interesting one to study on bear spray with black bears. As noted in many cases, the black bear may be driven away with the bear spray initially, but they will often come back.

Predatory black bear encounters by some accounts are becoming more common and increasing which relates to the initial question, are tents safe in bear country. With a growing black bear population that has doubled in the last couple of decades in the lower 48, rising predatory bear encounters does pose the question of whether tent camping is a safe endeavor in bear country any longer.

We never thought of bears when we went out camping in the woods in Maine when I was a teenager. It was true that they were more afraid of us than we were of them and we never had any encounters despite camping in remote areas all the time. I am no longer certain that is a sure thing any longer.

I was talking to a friend of mine here in Northern Idaho and he has killed dozens of black bears in his years as a rancher. He no longer will camp in a tent ever because it is his opinion that they have changed their behavior. Yet when he was a kid, that was never a concern of his. He would often camp alone in remote areas of Idaho and bear encounters were never an issue. I believe his observations are quite valid and evidenced by rising numbers of bear attacks especially in the last 10 years.

For those that are continuing to camp in tents, bear electric fences may be a necessary component of safe tent camping.

paintballdude902 said:

there is nothing practical that is bear safe.... unless u want to build a log cabin with no windows and door with multiple locks u wont be truly safe.


use a tent and if you are worried get one of the portable electric fences

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Actually, there are several safe practices that dramatically lower risk. Safety in numbers, safety in high visibility areas, safety with bear spray, safety with firearms, safety with camp hygiene just to name a few.

Even a log cabin is not a complete safety measure as many folks find out when they return in the spring. No, nothing is completely safe, but indeed, lot's of things you can and should do. However, camping in a tent by yourself is probably not on that list any longer given what many consider significant changes in bear behavior.