Friday, July 17, 2009

A boon to campers leaves bears unable to 'get inside the box' for a treat!

If you've ever gone camping where bears are you know how important it is to put your food in a safe place. Now, thanks to a Florida company, you can leave your food in a "bear-proof" container that will hold up to 100 pounds, anywhere you want. The bear community isn't going to like this invention, but in the long run it'll be safer for them.Less encounters with humans equals safer conditions for the bears.

New grizzly-tested coolers help bears, campers coexist

By Susan Gallagher, AP Writer

HELENA, Mont. — Keeping cold ones cold when camping in grizzly bear country may be getting a bit easier.

New coolers from a Florida company and a business in Texas that have passed federal and state tests for resistance to grizzlies are the first to be mass-produced. So, local officials willing, adventurers with a boat or a pack animal hefty enough to carry a cooler no longer must hang it 10 feet off the ground to comply with food-storage rules in the back country that grizzlies inhabit.

Click here to read the rest of this article in USA Today

Bears at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, Mont., failed to break into the boxes, made of the same tough plastic used in kayaks.

photo via Living With Wildlife Foundation

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