Bear Habitat Meansfood Storage Is Required!

Bears

Bear Habitat meansFood Storage is Required!

What must be stored?

All food and anything with a scent (even if you don't consider it food). This includes garbage, recyclables, soap, shampoo, toothpaste,sunscreen, first-aid kits,baby wipes, lotion, hairspray, scented tissue, air freshener, pet food, insect repellent, tobacco products,baby car-seats, and window cleaner. Bears recognize ice chests, cans, bottles, and grocery bags so store them also.

How to Store Items Properly

Usethe metal storage boxes that are provided in much of the park.
Shop and pack for your visit so that everything will fit in the boxes and is easy to store upon arrival.
All items should be put in the locker before setting up camp.
Seal foods in containers to minimize smells.
Remove baby carseats from vehicles when parked overnight.
When storage boxes are not available, put all food and related supplies, including ice chests, in vehicle trunk with food sealed in air-tight containers.
In vehicles without trunks, all food and related supplies, including ice chests, must be stored out of sight. Cover them completely to hide them from view.

In Picnic Areas

Store all food and related supplies properly, including ice chests. Never leave food unattended. Dispose of all garbage properly.

In Campgrounds

In all campgrounds, store all food and related supplies in the metal storage boxes. Only when camping where there are no metal boxes, store food and related supplies out of sight inside a vehicle.Never leave camp unattended if food is not stored. Store food day and night. Take infant carseats out of vehicles when parked overnight. Bears may enter campsites during the day, even if people are there. Keep a clean camp. Put trash in bear-proof cans and dumpsters regularly.

While Day-Hiking

Properly store all food and related supplies left at the trailhead, including ice chests. Don't leave your backpack and walk off to take a photograph. Bears know packs are a source of food.

What should I do with my food if I go backpacking? more...

Lodging

Store all food and related supplies indoors. Put all garbage in bear-proof cans and dumpsters. Take infant carseats out of vehicles when parked overnight.

When You See a Bear

Never approach any bear, regardless of its size. If you encounter a bear, act immediately. Throw objects at it from a safe distance. Yell, clap your hands, and bang pots together. If there is more than one person, stand together to present a more intimidating figure, but do not surround the bear. Use caution if you see cubs, as the mother may act aggressively to defend them. When done together, these actions have been successful in scaring bears away.Never try to directly retrieve anything once a bear has it.

Report incidents and sightings to a ranger. Note: These regulations and precautions help decrease the chance of personal injury or property damage. However, bear damage and confrontations are still possible, even when all guidelines are followed.

Bear Management Overview
/ Two bear cubs in a white fir tree

NPS Photo
Two bear cubs seek safety in a white fir tree.
Black bears (Ursus americanus) are an integral part of the Sierra ecosystem and one of the many wildlife species the National Park Service is mandated to protect. Black bears range throughout both Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks - where they forage for natural foods - digging up roots in meadows, ripping apart logs, and peering into tree cavities for food.
Unfortunately, when human food becomes available, they learn to forage for human food in place of natural food - digging up your backseat to get the cooler in the trunk, ripping apart trailer doors, and peering into your car for food. This change in foraging behavior also leads to changes in other behaviors such as the time bears are active, the range in elevation and habitat types where bears occur, and their behavior toward humans.
Ensuing conflicts between bears and humans result in damaged property, personal injuries, and this destruction of some bears, such as #583. The unnatural behavior and resultant losses are unacceptable. As a result, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks have a long-standing human-bear management program.
Black Bear Biology
/ Bears crosses a surging river

NPS Photo
Bears are good swimmers and will range widely in search of food.
Before Europeans settled here, the grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) called these parks home. Today this symbol of California is extinct throughout the state; in fact the last known grizzly was killed quite close to Sequoia National Park in 1922. The savvy Sierran black bear (Ursus americanus), however, still ranges from the foothills to the high country. Much smaller than the grizzly, male black bears rarely reach 400 pounds (180 kg) here; females may grow to 250 (112.5 kg). Despite their name, black bears can be brown, cinnamon or blonde.
Most black bears spend the winter in dens, typically in the base of a rotted fir tree. Bear cubs are born while their mothers are denning. Although they are tiny, often weighing less than 1/2 pound (.23 kg) at birth, they grow rapidly in their protected, womb-like dens. By the time the one, two or three cubs leave the den with their mother in April, they have gained some 5 pounds (2.25 kg). An adult bear, however, may have lost up to 50% of its weight during denning!
They emerge to seek sustenance from grasses and tender herbs, and whatever carrion they can find. They rely on meadow plants until berries begin to ripen. Bears are members of the order Carnivora, like their closest relatives, the dogs and raccoons, but contrary to what the name suggests, black bears eat relatively little meat. Occasionally bears do kill deer or eat the carrion left over by other predators such as cougars.
Later in the season they tear apart logs for carpenter ants and dig up yellowjacket nests. Autumn's acorns are critical to the bears' desperate efforts to gain weight needed to survive the coming winter. Sometimes in the fall, bears are spotted shaking down acorns from the oak trees. If the winter is warm and the acorn crop plentiful, some bears may remain active, descending from the conifer forest to the oaks below.
Black bears are not usually aggressive, and often escape danger by climbing a tree. But some bears learn to associate people with food, and may lose their instinctive fear of humans. This begins a cycle of unnatural behavior that is dangerous to both bears and humans.
Yearlings, in their first season away from mom, know the least about finding wild foods and are most vulnerable. They may be the first to become campground bears and the most difficult to return to a natural diet.
These intelligent animals identify food not only by smell, but by appearance -- bags, cans, coolers, and even cars become tempting. Once one ice chest or car yields food, bears don't hesitate to pry open others to check for our protein-rich, high-calorie food. Because human foods are usually such concentrated sources of protein and calories, bears will select them so long as they take less effort to obtain than berries and acorns. Remember to save a bear by never letting a bear get your food and food-related items!!
Black Bear Encounters
/ Black bears are wonderful to observe in the wild and we hope you will have a chance to do so during your visit. But when bears are humans get too close, the result can be disastrous - for you or the bear. It is important to remember that bears will change their behavior if they become habituated to humans (get used to our presence) which will happen if we crowd them or observe them too closely. Bears also change their behavior if they obtain human food - even just one time. They begin to break into cars, tents, and cabins and may become aggressive. If a bear becomes a safety hazard, we sometimes have to destroy it. In 2000, we killed four bears. Other habituated and food-conditioned bears are killed by cars because they spend more time along roads and in campgrounds.
"What should I do if I encounter a bear in a:"
"natural area?"
Consider yourself lucky! Almost all visitors want to see black bears during their stay in the Parks. This may be your chance to take an award-winning photograph. In other words, enjoy, but please remember these simple rules:

Stay together (especially small children).
Give the bear(s) lots of room (300 feet or more).
Don't get between a sow and her cubs.
Don't linger too long.

"developed area?"
You are still lucky, but the bears need to be "hazed" out of developed areas so they don't feel welcome and get habituated or get food. Please help keep bears wild by following the suggestions below - these are especially valid if a bear enters your campsite or picnic area. You may also see park staff using more aggressive techniques during your visit such as paint ball guns, pepper spray, slingshots, even rubber bullets. Please do not try these techniques or become offended by our use of them. We are well-trained and safety-conscious. These techniques look "mean" but are essential for the future of these bears. If you have any new ideas, we would love to hear about them. Some of our best methods come from suggestions from visitors like you.
If a bear enters your area:

Check to make sure all you food and food-related items are stored properly.
Get everyone together (especially kids) and look really big and make lots of noise (bang pots and pans, etc.).
Never surround a bear - they need an escape route!
Never separate a sow from her cubs (sometimes cubs are up a nearby tree).
If a bear huffs at you and shows its profile, it may be ready to bluff charge. Stand your ground or back away slowly. Do not run.
Never try to take food back from a bear!

"What should I do if a bear bluff-charges me?"
Look big, raise your arms, and stand your ground. As soon as the bear backs away, you should back away as well. The bear may be guarding food or cubs and view you as a threat. If a bluff charge ever became a real charge and a bear made bodily contact, you would need to tuck into a ball face down with your hands over your neck. In very rare instances (never in these Parks), black bears have made predaceous attacks on humans. If that ever happened, you would need to fight back.
"Where Can I See A Bear?"
Most visitors who see bears in the Parks are simply lucky, but you can increase your chances if you know where to look. The best places to find bears are those places that serve as food sources for this opportunistic omnivore. In the spring, bears are often found in meadows digging up grasses, forbs, and roots, or in the forest ripping apart logs for insects. When berries become available in the summer, bears are seen dining at manzanita and bitter cherry bushes. In the fall, visitors often see bears high up in the oak trees gorging themselves on acorns. Even if you don't see a bear during your visit, you can find signs of bears everywhere - overturned rocks and stumps, torn-up rotten trees, scratch marks and bits of fur on trees, scats, and of course, tracks in the snow or mud. If you are lucky enough to see a bear, remember that bears, and all park animals, are wild. Please do not approach them and NEVER give them food.
Note: These regulations and precautions help decrease the chance of personal injury or property damage. However, bear damage and confrontations are still possible, even when all guidelines are followed. All bears in the Sierra Nevada are American black bears, Ursus americanus. This name can be misleading, as they may be black, brown, cinnamon, or even blonde in color. The last grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) in California was killed near Sequoia National Park in 1922. This information does not apply to parks inhabited by grizzly bears.