Woody and Maynard, two American black bears at the Oklahoma City Zoo, recently demonstrated how quickly they could find food in an imitation campsite and offered a valuable lesson for coexisting with wildlife. When visiting or living in bear country, anything that might tempt a bear — from pet food or this week’s trash to a full-blown picnic — should be properly stored at campsites and other outdoor spaces.
In a special enrichment exercise, Ambre Sooter, a senior animal caretaker for the OKC Zoo, staged a mock campsite in the bear’s Oklahoma Trails habitat before turning Woody and Maynard out for the day. A brown paper bag with nutritionist-approved bear snacks hung from a closed trash can. Popcorn was stashed in cereal boxes and scattered on the ground. Leafy greens, fruits and grains were tossed near a cardboard tent. Thawed fish were waiting in a low stock tank. And a tempting slice of watermelon was left on a ledge.
“Today, we’re having our bears explore a campsite that we created with natural and some non-natural enrichments to see what a bear might do out in the wild if they were to stumble upon a campsite,” Sooter said.
Within 20 seconds of entering the habitat, Woody was nose-deep in a cereal box. Before the first minute had passed, Maynard had pulled the snacks from the trash and the can was on its side, later to be spun around and more fully opened and explored. Five minutes in, and the bears had fully “camped out,” using their paws to scrape food from just outside of their resting spot and lounging in the pool after eating a few fish.
Woody and Maynard, the OKC Zoo’s American black bear ambassadors, demonstrated their ability to enter a mock campsite and sniff out easily available food in under a minute.
Visit Woody and Maynard!
The Oklahoma City Zoo features a variety of animals native to Oklahoma, including American black bears Woody and Maynard, in their eight-acre Oklahoma Trails habitat. Ask zoo staff about the animals and learn more about how to live with wildlife during scheduled caretaker chats, free with OKC Zoo admission.
“Our bears are ambassadors for their species,” Sooter said. “Helping their wild counterparts is our goal, whether it’s through educating guests that walk through our gates to care a little bit more about those wild places and wildlife that are still existing, or to make fair, safe practices part of their normal day.”
What Happens at Camp Doesn’t Always Stay at Camp
Woody and Maynard were able to move into the mock campsite and find popcorn and other goodies to munch in well under a minute, but they also get six meals a day while gearing up for winter and are used to searching their habitat for plants they can forage on naturally as well as extra snacks “planted” by their caretakers. Add in their daily interactions with zoo staff and guests, and they are more-than-textbook habituated bears. Even so, their ability to sniff out easily available food and quickly get comfortable in a human space was familiar to the Wildlife Department’s Matt Hensley.
“These bears knew exactly what to do when they walked in the camp,” Hensley said. “One walked right up to the trash can, licked the edges, grabbed it and pulled it over. The other knew exactly how to get into the cereal box. This is what you would typically see from a wild bear as far as behavior around unsecured trash.”
Hensley is a senior wildlife biologist and the state’s black bear project leader. In addition to managing Oklahoma’s bear season and harvest, he also responds to a lot of the bear calls the Wildlife Department receives in summer and early fall. This year’s extended hot and dry summer was hard on the native grape and berry crop, and the drop in natural food resources has generated about three times as many human-bear conflicts as in previous years.
“If a bear hasn’t been exposed to humans, just the mere scent of human presence will typically drive it away,” Hensley said. “But food conditioning and habituation can begin in campsites and on trails, which then leads to bears foraging around human-occupied spaces.
“Human-bear conflict typically emerges around residences in Oklahoma.”
For Hensley, the zoo’s demonstration with Woody and Maynard drives home the importance of understanding how to live with bears.
“It’s very important to use BearWise tactics whenever you’re camping in the woods. Once a bear has moved in and raided a campsite, and has gotten a food reward from that raid, habituation and food conditioning has already occurred,” Hensley said. “It’s very difficult to reverse that in the bear’s mind.”
The Wildlife Department’s Matt Hensley shares more about human-bear conflict in southeastern Oklahoma’s “cabin country” on Outdoor Oklahoma.
Bear Country Camp Tips
- Find out if your campsite has rules for food storage. If a storage locker or bear box isn’t available, plan to keep food in your locked vehicle or personal bear-resistant container (hint: not an ice chest) or hang a food bag from a tree or pole.
- Trail mix and other snacks are a staple for many camping trips, just keep it out of your tent. It’s easier to get up and grab a snack from the vehicle than it is to deal with a bear smelling good ‘ole raisons and peanuts in your tent. (You can also make your tent less interesting to a bear by changing out of the clothes you had on while cooking before getting into the tent.)
- Before setting the picnic table, have a plan for quickly gathering and storing your food should a bear enter your campsite — because the bear will definitely have a plan. Human safety is the priority, but leaving food on the table will only reward the bear and may train it to look for food in other human spaces.
BearWise Backyard Tips
- Taking out the trash isn’t the most fun chore, but putting your trash in a bear-resistant can or dumpster can save you the even less fun chore of cleaning up after a bear. Leaving a bag of trash in the bed of the truck or just outside your door can be an open invitation for bears and other wildlife to hang out in your space.
- Fido may be used to getting his chow on the porch all day, but pet food can also attract a bear or other wildlife. Consider feeding your pet indoors and never leave an extra helping where a bear can find it.
“Trash is the No. 1 attractant we have conflict with,” Hensley said. “It’s something that most people, myself included, don’t take as much time securing. It’s not as valuable as the groceries. In a campsite, trash often gets left on a handy, low-hanging limb. And that’s a lot of times the first thing that a bear will find and scatter for a quarter of a mile from your campsite.”
Sooter added that bears have an incredible sense of smell.
“If you think about your campsite, you’ve got lots of yummy smells whether it’s your leftover foods or the grilling you’re doing at the moment. If the bear’s nose smells it and they’re hungry enough, they’re smart enough to find their way there, and there’s a good chance they’ll get their paws on it.
“So, if you want to help them, help yourself ahead of time by putting all your stuff away.”
What to Do If You Encounter a Bear
If you happen to walk up on a bear on a trail or wake up to one in your campsite, Hensley cautions that it’s important to remember not to scream and run.
“What you should do is stand tall, speak firmly, and arm yourself if you have bear spray or a sidearm. The goal here is to intimidate the bear.
“You’ll also want to take a quick assessment of your surroundings. Look for possible escape routes that will not bring you in between the bear and another food source it may have identified and want to defend.”
BearWise is an education and outreach program founded, supported and funded by state wildlife agencies. Download free fact sheets and get more tips for living with bears at home, outdoors and while on vacation from bearwise.org.