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604-291-9990
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The BCWF would like to acknowlege the on-going support of the
BC Government.
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(Know)
Key Points
- Students must know that bears are attracted to anything with odours, including food, deodorant, perfumes, lotions, toothpaste and petroleum products. A bear attracted into camp is dangerous. If it gets food, it becomes very dangerous for the next group to use the camp.
- Use the distance of 100 m (100 yards) from tent, to food cache to cooking area. Any garbage burning or dish water disposal should be 200 m/200 yards away from the tent. The tent must be upwind of all of these. Never cook in a tent during spring, fall or summer. Use a separate tent in winter if you cook in it.
- Clothes used while cooking, skinning or handling game should be hung with the food cache. Anything with an odour, including chocolate bars and snacks, must never be kept in a tent.
- Food caches should be suspended so that packs are at least 12 feet (4 m) above the ground.
- Garbage should not be buried ö bears will dig it up. Burn garbage thoroughly or pack it out. Pack everything out that you packed in. Garbage to be packed out should be cached with the food.
- A discussion of garbage and odours is a good place to bring up food/garbage/odour sources around homes, farms and towns.
- Campers should sleep in tents making sure no attractants are inside. A canvas wall is a psychological barrier to a prowling bear.
Learning Activities
- Ask for student suggestions of things that could attract bears into a camp. Record on blackboard or flip chart and add things they miss.
- Show diagrams and distances for tent, food, cooking fire, wind direction, height of cache above ground, etc. Ask students where a game carcass should be hung and add that to diagram.
Teaching Aids
- The Bears and Man video shows good camp selection practices and Bear Aware shows how NOT to select camp sites and also shows several good cache methods. Safety in Bear Country has an excellent section on camp locations and how to deal with attractants in camp.
Suggested Evaluation
- Ask questions of most or all students or use a sentence completion quiz.
Return to Bear Safety Workshop Table of Contents »
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