BearVaults and Bearikades News

[Remix]

I got a promotional emailing from www.prolitegear.com that had some info about bearvault and bearikade failures out west. They sell bear vaults and bearikades so I think the info is credible, but, as always YMMV.


----clip from prolite gear promotional email
If you use a BearVault or Bearikade, or know somebody that does please pass this on. For the last two weeks approximately 7 BearVaults and 2 Bearikades have been broken into by a bear in a specific area of the Sierra. At this time these incidents are isolated to this specific area and possibly one or more bears. The Sierra Interagency Black Bear Group has pointed out that at this time this does not affect the approval status of any BearVault models. The local rangers will attempt to tag the suspected bear(s) and observe its behavior during interactions with bear canisters put in the area to observe what is happening. BearVault is obtaining several of the canisters from the incidents in this area in an effort to determine the cause of the failures.


We will keep you posted as we learn more.

Thanks!

Craig Delger
ProLite GEAR

---end clip

 

[Boreal]

Bear cans

Wow, I guess it was just a matter of time...

Actuall, I worked at the ADK's information center last summer and I recall a couple of incidents where bear canisters were breeched because people had failed to secure the top correctly. I wonder if the incidents mentioned might have stemmed from the same type of "user error"
Of course the bear cans we rented out their were the one made by Garcia Machine - but I suppose it could just as easily have been one of the other brands.

 

[Remix]

Oops I missed the other thread..n/m.

 

[una_dogger]

Interesting

I just finished using my new BearVault and was loving it. I'd be interested in hearing more on this when it becomes available.
I had all my food double ziplocked in the Bearvault and tried not to touch it with food scented hands. I was wondering if bears can smell through the plastic? Or are these bears seeing the food on the inside?

 

[Pete_Hickey]

I was wondering if bears can smell through the plastic?

People can too.

Try this: Put some fresh ground coffee in a plastic bag. Then put that bag in another bag. Then put that bag in another bag. Then smell it. Remember, that a bear's sense of smell is (someone fill in the blank herre).......... times better than people's.

 

[TEO]

People can too.
Try this: Put some fresh ground coffee in a plastic bag. Then put that bag in another bag. Then put that bag in another bag. Then smell it. Remember, that a bear's sense of smell is (someone fill in the blank herre).......... times better than people's.

Yes, but Bearvaults are made of polycarbonate--not exactly a ziplock bag. If you put freshly ground coffee in a lexan nalgene and rinse the outside well, can you smell the coffee inside?

I don't know. Maybe you can, maybe you can't. Anyone care to try? It is a more accurate test than using a ziplock bag. Even better: put a dog biscuit or something else yummy wrapped in a paper towel, so that a dog cannot recognize it by sight, inside the nalgene, close it up, rinse the outside well and see if your dog goes crazy over it. Extra points if you use a bloodhound.

 

[Brownie]

People can too.

Try this: Put some fresh ground coffee in a plastic bag. Then put that bag in another bag. Then put that bag in another bag. Then smell it. Remember, that a bear's sense of smell is ......................

like a really cool new AXE.....and is 100

....................times better than people's.

I dunno really...

In truth a bear has the strongest sense of smell of any animal on earth!

 

[WalksWithBlackflies]

Nope... vulture. However, a bear's smeller is so good that it doesn't make sense to design the canister to keep all smells within. That's why you shouldn't keep it at your campsite.

 

[una_dogger]

Great axe, Pete, can't wait to see what you pull out of your magic hat next!

Shoot! My coffee is SO STRONG that anyone could smell it!

Yeah, I do double zippies as well, freezer strength. I was curious about the thick walled polycarb adding another odor profile barrier.

The other thing was I wonder if anyone has done any controlled experiments to see if the bear is actually able to see through the bearvaults clear plastic and ID the food inside. I noticed that Garcia's are jet black. Don't know if it makes a difference...just pondering the idea.

Sabrina

 

[HockeyPuck]

I was curious

Remember, that a bear's sense of smell is (someone fill in the blank herre).......... times better than people's.

I've been curious about bears sense of smell since reading Pete Hickey's comment yesterday afternoon (above) and found an interesting site and article about Bears. The web page is here. An exerpt is below.

"A bear's sense of smell is 7 times greater than that of a bloodhound. There is perhaps no other animal with a keener sense of smell. Bears rely on their sense of smell to locate mates, detect and avoid danger in the form of other bears and humans, identify cubs, and FIND FOOD. Although the region of the brain devoted to the sense of smell is average in size, the area of nasal mucous membrane in a bear's head is one hundred times larger than in a human's. This gives a bear a sense of smell that is 7 times greater than a bloodhound's. In addition, they have an organ called a Jacobson's organ, in the roof of the mouth, that further enhances their sense of smell.
Here are some accounts of how truly well a bear can smell:"

"A black bear in California was once seen to travel upwind three miles in a straight line to
reach the carcass of a dead deer."

". . . male polar bears march in a straight line, over the tops of pressure ridges of uplifted ice . . .
up to 40 miles to reach a prey animal they have detected."

"A bear has been known to detect a human scent more than fourteen hours after the person passed along the trail."

"A male can detect which way a breeding female is traveling just by sniffing her tracks."

Edited: Added quote

 

[TCD]

It's pretty amazing that the bear's sense of smell is several times better than a dog, because dogs are amazing in their own right.

Avalanche dogs can locate a person under several feet of packed snow in seconds (literally, like 45 seconds). I have worked with search dogs, where a person hides a half mile away in the woods. The dog goes RIGHT TO them, just as easily as you or I could if they were out on an open field in a blaze orange jacket.

For these animals, scent is a whole world that is just not imaginable to us humans AT ALL. For them, scent is like vision is for us. We can't imagine it, because our sense of smell is so poor by comparison.

(Dog in a past life.)

TCD