THIS SPRING THE EDMONTON JOURNAL REPORTED that a grocery store in Peace River, Alberta, has opened its doors to black bears. Or more accurately, a black bear wandered in through an automatic door and helped itself to a dozen cakes in the bakery sec- tion. According to the store night manager, it was particularly fond of strawberry mousse—which makes sense. This wasn’t the first time bears have enjoyed the convenience


of 24-hour shopping, a similar story was reported in Parry Sound, Ontario, a few years ago. The grocery store in Parry Sound is in a new suburban development, which is consistent with biologists’ contention that an increase in bear encounters is a result of devel- opment encroaching on bear habitat. As family campers pitching our tents in parks, we are no doubt


moving in on bear territory, and sometimes our paths cross. Spend enough time around campfires and you’ll hear hundreds


of different types of bear encounters: from roadside spottings to very dangerous, even fatal encounters. Spend enough time in the bush and you’ll likely have your own stories to share. Tom Morrow, a 49-year-old father of two boys, is the leader of the


First Dundas Scouts and is no stranger to bears, although one of his bear stories is stranger than most. Morrow was leading his troop in Grundy Lake Provincial Park in


central Ontario when they returned to find a black bear making itself at home in their campsite. Despite his best efforts to scare it off, it just didn’t want to go.


Family Camping (FC): How did you encounter this bear?


TOM MORROW: We had been off paddling down the lake in our canoes, hiking and jumping from rocks. When we paddled back up through the lake and got to our site, a couple of kids arrived be- fore the others. They ran up to the site and then ran quickly back to the shore shouting that there was a bear in our campsite. We told the kids, like the great leaders we were, to stay by the canoes and not to go near it. When we got to the site there was a young bear sit- ting in our open-top utility trailer. It had popped the lid off one of our storage containers and was casu- ally sitting there eating our banana chips and trail mix.


FC: What is the Boy Scout train- ing for this type of situation?


TOM: We were at first concerned for the kids’ safety and of course concerned for our banana chips. We started making all sorts of noise to scare the bear off. There were five adults and 15 kids about 20 feet back all jumping up and down and shouting and making as much racket as we could. The bear slowly meandered out of the trailer and sat down and


stared at us. A few minutes later it started pawing at the ground. It turned over some rotted wood, probably looking for bugs. But it wouldn’t leave the site.


FC: Was the bear angry?


TOM: No. It seemed like it was just out for a good time, just out to get a little food. We kept shouting and trying to scare him off. A few min- utes later it circled around the site


and came back from the other di- rection and climbed back into the trailer and stole a loaf of bread, looking defiantly at us.


FC: What a nervy bear! I heard that you even tried charging it with your car? Tell me about that.


TOM: Well at this point we knew that we had to do something a little drastic. So I hopped into my mini- van. I revved the engine and I was honking the horn. I didn’t exactly charge it, but I did move towards him hoping to scare him off. It just looked nonchalantly over its shoul- der and kept wandering around.


FC: Were any of the kids scared?


TOM: No, they thought it was like a zoo. They stood there and watched. As is the nature of kids they kept trying to get closer and closer and we had to keep pushing them back. Of course a couple of the kids ran back to their tents on another site to get their cameras.


FC: I guess after that you needed professional help.


TOM: We went down and report- ed it to the park office. The staff mentioned that they knew there was a campground bear roaming around and that it had been a bit of a nuisance. That night they set a large cage trap far away from the campsites. When they do catch campground bears they relocate them far away so that they don’t come back.


FC: How did you feel about all this?


TOM: Well, when we returned from the park office he’d wandered off to a neighbouring campsite. We were with these 15 kids in a camp-


ground with this bear wandering around. For two days we worried it was going to come back. One night we did hear a lot of noise from the next campground, so we assumed that the bear had made his way there too.


FC: What did the park officials say about all this?


TOM: Apparently, this type of bear, a campground bear, is one that has become too familiar with people. They see campers as a food source—I mean they see our food as a food source. These bears act more like an overgrown street- smart raccoon than an animal in the wild.


FC: Do you have any advice for other campers? Do you store your food differently now?


TOM: Although we maintained a very clean campsite and never, ever had food in our tents, we now store our food in plastic tote boxes and keep them locked in a van. Ap- parently bears can still smell the food through a locked and sealed car, but at least they can’t get at it.


FC: Was there anything you would have done differently?


Tom: Well we certainly followed all the right steps. We made a lot of noise, made ourselves look as big as possible to look more imposing. We did all the things you’re sup- posed to do to scare off a bear. This bear just didn’t want to go.


FC: I wonder why not?


TOM: I guess he really liked ba- nana chips.


—Interview by Holly Ginsler


FAMILY CAMPING 11


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