Who's had animal problems in camp?

[ryanszeredi]

Someone forgot a cooler on the deck at the cabin one night. so when we woke up in the morning to make breakfast and went looking for fixings in said cooler.
something had opened a latched cooler and taken out the 2 pounds of bacon only. we found the packaging 30 yards away after alittle looking.

[Gone_Fishin_]

Not in camp but quite the encounter, had a black bear come up from behind us while fishing for coho on the island. We had 4 beauties in a rock well by shore. This is normal for this area and usually a bit of yelling or waving your arms will run them off, not this one. No matter what we did he wouldn't leave. Shot bear bangers at him, threw rocks, yelling, everything we did would not deter this bear. He laid down and ate the bellies and heads off all 4 coho while we stood pinned waist deep in the river as the only way back to shore was to wade within inches of him.

Half hour in and he decided to lay back down and nap, after a bit we didn't know what to do. Shot our last bear banger and basically bounced it off his head. He got up and gave a nasty look at us and started popping his jaws. Buddy loaded a flare (all we had left) and shot it at him right, right as it went off he turned and we watched the flare stick him in the a** cheek. Took off running and never did see him again that trip.

Fast forward to the next years fishing trip. Heading down to the same slot and we joked about the bear from the year before. Mid morning and we see another coming up the shoreline towards us, again normal for this area and see about 4-6 per day when fishing. Just give them their space and let them pass and never had an issue. As he walked by he stopped and sat down by our bags on shore. Great we thought... better not be the same bear ! this time we had no fish on shore and he moved along after a few minutes. Once he was down river a bit buddy says "look, there is a big bald spot on that bears ass", same right cheek where we saw the flare stick into the one the year before.

Had a bull moose come into our camp a few years back in region 5. It was around 11 and we were just about to head to bed. Happened to look up before heading to the tent and seen the silhouette of a big figure standing just at the edge of camp, watched him take another step, look up and see our fire. Turned around and took off like a bat outta hell. Crashing and smashing through the forest like a monster truck. Next morning spent all day hunting around camp, no moose to be found..... lol

[Brez]

I have a friend who turns into a bit of an animal from time to time

You too? I have a friend that turned into a moth - hence he has that nick-name. If you left a light on in camp, no matter what the time, he would come visit...and not leave. He's better now.

[Brez]

Couple of years ago, while goat hunting out of my hunting trailer, we had food and utensils go missing at night. Figured it was a rat. I woke to see a pine martin scurrying around the shelter (with a wood stove) attached to the Bigfoot. Had a chuckle and went to sleep. Later, I got up to pee and when I re-entered the trailer the little bugger was on my bed! walked right past my partner and made itself at home. Had a heck of a time getting it out as it did not want to leave.

[Brez]

Many years ago, while elk hunting out of a wall tent in the upper Elk valley, the guys in the next camp got an elk and proceeded to celebrate to the extreme. They came over to our camp and hung the quarters on a low pole next to our tent, then told us to keep an eye on the meat in case of bears. Middle of the night, I woke to hear a bear walk by the tent within inches of me and head for the meat. I could hear him chewing on the quarters. I rolled over and slept like a baby.

[MichelD]

Mice. Crazy huge population of mice at a campsite on the Island last fall during a cow elk hunt. One even got into the canopy of my truck and ate through the thick nylon of my day pack to get at a chocolate bar in there.

The danged bull elk bugling in the trees just outside the campsite every second night was a nuisance as well. I hope he found a cow. I didn't.

[caddisguy]

Here's a few more (I have over an hour on transit to kill) ... I have posted some of these before in other threads so they could be repeats for some.

One evening me and caddisgirl got back to camp after hunting some old growth timber. We're in a tent just about to drift off to sleep and then foot steps on the gravel. It came right up to the tent and stopped. I shouted at it and then it walked away. Once again, we are just slipping into dream land and the foot steps come back and stop at the tent right by my head of course. I shout again, it leaves again. This cycle repeated a few more times at 5-20 minute intervals. I am still not sure what I am dealing with. We had just hiked back from a spot a few kms away where we have seen bears and cougar with a limp a few weeks prior. So, once again the foot steps stop at the tent. I'm tired of the routine so I signal caddisgirl to stay quiet while I do the same. Let's see what happens. After about 30 seconds a shape about the size of a dinner plate pushes into the tent, then another. It looks like a head and shoulder mostly broadside but slighly quartered. At the time I was thinking of the cougar but I should have thought it out better... cougar would have been lower. I will admit my next move is not the brightest (I should have just walked out of the tent with a rifle after the second time and confronted it) anyway, threw all of my 150lbs at it and shoved it as hard as I could expecting to knock it right off its feet. Nope. Didn't budge and didn't react for a few seconds until it slowly walked away. I think we ended up waiting a half hour or so before retreating to and sleeping in the jeep. It must have been a pretty big bear. Funny enough I just grabbed a camera from there over the weekend and saw a tank that must be 350-400lbs ... maybe I shoved him? Lol ... who knows. I will post up that guy up soon

Next story. Caddisgirl always wakes up early, even when we are not hunting, just camping. We are at a provincial park and she wakes up to go for a walk. No bear spray or anything. Well, I am sleeping in the car and wake up to "hey! This bear followed me back. what should we do?". I look out and the bear is working over a stump a few yards away. I guess what happened was this bear happened to be cruising for bugs in the same direction caddisgirl wanted to retreat. Result was that she ended up walking backwards for 1km or so with the bear in tow. Anyway I pound back a redbull and the tables turn. We started following the bear around and filming it ... Got some nice footage of it climbing trees and knocking down a yellow jacket nest (I'll post that up later when I'm on a real computer)

Next story. We went to go camp by a river we wanted to fish but the campsite was full. We drove 20 mins or so back to one of our hunting camps, take out the gear and set up our jeep nest. Off to sleep. Next morning caddisgirl is up early as usual and fixed herself a bowl of cereal which she is standing there eating. All too common, I am awaked to "**** a bear!" ... I sit up and look outside to see what looks like some kind of stand-off (reality: they surprised each other and both are frozen) ... so caddisgirl (who has bear spray this time but is still clutching her bowl of cereal with both hands) and this bear and staring at each other, probably 2-3 yards away. All of a sudden the bear just turns and bolts. I always joke about how interrupting caddisgirl's breakfast can result in a look that will send anything running. It's not really true... but funny

Next story. Heading out camping to the same lake the bear "followed" caddisgirl back to camp. Realized after almost an hour of driving I forgot my pack with some essentials. Had to drive an hour back home then another 2.5 hours back to the lake. Not cool after a long day at work. Needless to say it was dark when we arrived and we couldn't get a site by the lake which means setting up the boat and getting it to the water the next morning will be a pain. Well, we wake up the next morning first light. There's a couple who are frantically packing up their gear and then they take off. Perfect! We migrated over to their camp right on the water and had a great day fishing. We set up our tent a little off in the trees to have shade. I woke up around 3am to bears wandering around. I heard them go down towards the water about 20 yards away. I grabbed my bear spray and got out to have a look as there is lots of moonlight. It's the same sow that followed caddisgirl the year prior and she has two cubs. Very cool. I went back to bed not worried at all. This bear has a good track record, but now I realized why the couple left in a hurry. What I didn't realize is that they had paid for the campsite for the whole weekend so we camped free. Thanks bear!!

I'm sure everyone has seen the story about the bear charge last year when I was looking for an arrow, then woke up a week later with his face right next to mine with only some soft plastic in between. If not just search.

I think that covers most of the significant camp critter tales. Hopefully someone was entertained... if not at least we were

[wideopenthrottle]

as a 20ish forest fire fighter we got set down on a swamp on one flank while other crews attacked from 2 other directions...to get to the fire we had a 1 mile hose lay that started in the swamp and went up a steep bank....about half way up the bank, there was a bench where we set up our tents (we were 3 crews of 6 guys on our site and more than 60 people and a half dozen machines on the fire)

After a long evening, we settled in to make some food and after a great pig out we dug the bottles out.....

come first light, one of the guys says "heh there is an animal out there" and then proceeds to freak out when he looks out and sees a bear......I sit up yell "f off bear" and it takes off...after about one more hour of sleep we all get up and investigate the commotion....

a black bear had come along the bench and found our drinks cooler....every single pop and apple juice had been bit open and drank.....in the cooler was also a case of grapefruit juice....we laughed cuz the bear had only bitten one grapefruit juice and left the rest but drank every single other can of pop and juice in the cooler

[Iron Glove]

Not quite in camp but @ 40 years ago the Wife and I were tenting in Banff and for what ever reason we were having an argument so I figured the best thing to do was go outside and take a pee. It's pitch black out, left my glasses in the tent so can't see worth a damn but find a small bush near the tent to pee on.
The bush started moving and I cry out "Crap, I'm pissing on a bear." Wife screams "Get back in the tent right now" to which I could only reply "I can't I'm still pissing."
The bear sauntered off, I crawl back into the tent and we didn't argue anymore.

[albravo2]

Couple years ago up Tulameen we had several deer that wouldn't leave us alone. We were sitting by the fire in the early evening and we could see them sneaking close in the sparse trees around our camp. Turns out they had a taste for my wife's Franks Red Hot chicken wings. We had the plates sitting on the tailgate of the truck and they would sneak right up and lick the plates while we sat and talked in evening light about 15 feet away. Definitely the weirdest animal behaviour I've seen while camping.