Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 21:23:16 -0500
Reply-To: Jeff Palmer <icecoldvw@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jeff Palmer <icecoldvw@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: bears burgling for food?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
I used to be smug about this too until I read this from a local friend!
>ADVERTISEMENT
A bear broke into the Westy in Whistler. We had two Westies, mine and
my father's, up in Whistler. Mine was in the garage and his parked
immediately outside the condo unit door. It was a hot day and we had
left the side windows open to prevent it from getting too hot inside.
When we went down to the Westy in the morning, we found it terrorized
by a bear.
Both screens were knocked in and broken, and two curtains shorn from
their hooks. THe bear had obviously reached in with its long arm,
looking for food. There were some dry goods (pasta, canned foods, etc.)
in the compartment under the folding. The table, as a result, was torn
from its moorings and the lid of said compartment bent up.
It is awesome to think of the strength of these creatures, how they can
pull a table right out of its bolts at the end of their arm length
reach inside a vehicle. Luckily the damage mostly stopped there. THe
interior, aside from some minor scratches, was left unshredded. There
are paw marks on the sides and glass, and some bear hair in the window,
but we got off easy.
So, our lesson is that these camper vans are not safe from bear
attacks, and we ought to be wary of where we parks them, and certainly
not with the windows open when in bear territory. There are invariably
more food smells in a Westy than an average vehicle, so it is best to
take extra caution.
After asking around a bit in WHistler, apparently the bears know which
cars to target, favouring mini-vans. They climb on the roof and push
the back window in to collect coolers and other yummy items. THey are
also tossing entire chest freezers off people's cabin decks to reveal
their contents.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Demarest" <tim.demarest@POBOX.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, August 18, 2004 10:24 AM
Subject: Re: bears burgling for food?
> Alan,
>
> Every year, at Westies in the Woods here in New Jersey, a park ranger
comes
> to the campsite to sternly give the standard warning:
>
> "We have a lot of black bears in this area. Never leave any food
> out, keep it all locked in your trunk... never keep *any* food in your
tent!".
>
> At this point, someone in the crowd clears their throat and glances
> significantly at one of the obviously-trunk-free tent-with-wheels
westies...
>
> I know this is just immaturity on my part... but I do enjoy the look of
> thwarted authority that briefly crosses each ranger's face at this point.
>
> So far, the NJ park service has failed to come up with a way to store food
> in these vehicles without keeping it in our tents, but I'm sure a large
> portion of my tax dollars is at work on this problem as we speak.
>
> Tim
>
> At 11:42 PM 8/17/2004 -0700, alan sinclair wrote:
> >In places that have bears, warning signs say not to keep any food in
> >the car, with photos of vehicles which have been "can-opened" by
> >bears.
> >
> >How do list members handle this problem? How do we keep bears out of
> >our '81 westie bedroom? It wouldn't be fun to wake to a burgling
> >bear, nor to have a door pulled off.
> >
> >thanks for any advice
> >Alan
> >(off to the Sierras in a day or two, and hoping to keep food on-board)
>
>
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