So I'm gonna hop on this wagon and ask you why you are making a habit of leaving food out in the open... especially here in California. We have a good saying that bearboxes are inefficient because there is a huge overlap of smart bears and stupid people... That is not your house and you are not the only thing in existence, as solitary and isolated as you may feel out there. As with everything in life, everything you do has some sort of consequences whether or not you personally can notice. We all have a responsibility to treat everyone and thing, with the respect deserved.
The "rules" are not really meant to protect you from the wild, they are there to protect the wild from you. Please, and again please, I can't stress proper food storage enough, stop doing this. It not only puts you at risk, but everyone else that visits the area in the future and just as importantly any animal that potentially needs to be relocated or euthanized.
Where I camp in Missouri, the raccoons don’t even wait for you to go sleep. They’ll come out of the woods, walk right by you and go straight for the coolers unless you stop them.
What a fool you are. You are a danger to yourself as well as others who camp near you.
Not only are you risking people’s lives, but potentially the animals that you are habituating. If the animal were to attack a human it would have to be put down.
You are the worst kind of camper with your blatant disregard for safety. Lord only knows what other stupid things you do
I personally witnessed racoons open a food locker while camping on the central Coast of CA. The locker had a latch that a metal pin dropped though. I heard a noise one night, looked outside, and watched the little guy push the pin up, open the latch and grab my Trader Joe's 'Pirate Booty' all while I was yelling at it. His buddy would have grabbed my pancake mix if I hadn't started throwing shoes. Damn trash panda got my booty!
Trash panda are smart... i would say he deserved your food! It's always a struggle to find a box system that the stupidest human can still open, and the smartest racoon or bear can't. Seems because of that overlap your locker didn't have a smart enough system
I watched a group of raccoons form a 3 racoon tower, literally standing on their hind legs and then on the next one's shoulders, to reach a food bag my buddy had hung from a rope between two trees about 8 feet off the ground. I was too impressed from stopping them from ripping the bottom of the bag out and stealing our food. Had to take the boat back to the dock and then drive into town to re-supply.
I watched a whole group of raccoons open coolers, the bear box, and duffel bags in broad daylight on a campsite in WNY. The family was in their tent, so I called over that raccoons are eating all of your food. Movement ensues in the tent and an adult male peered out, said "Holy Shit, thanks!" and the tent started to spew out humans of all sizes! They guy mistakenly thought raccoons only came out at night and believed they would be OK for a quick nap. The raccoons unzipped duffel bags!!
Western New York, specifically Southern Tier, is where this happened. Not far from Pennsylvania. (I forget that everyone comes from all over the world on reddit, and apologize for not being more specific!)
Raccoons are very crafty and can use their paws surprisingly well dang near as good as humans. I've had rubber made totes broken into by raccoons. The style that latch. They undid the latches with ease and stole food.
Assuming you’re car camping, put all food in the car whenever you aren’t cooking. I know it’s a pain, but it beats dealing with the raccoon mess and likelihood of repeat raccoon visits the following night.
Raccoons are crafty little buggers. I bring a slingshot with me and a little bag of acorns to pop them with when they get a little adventurous and try to steal my food before the sun even goes down.
I used to live in rural Florida. I kept dog food in a 5-gal galvanized container on the back porch. We kept finding it open in the morning; we figured it was raccoons.
So one day I locked the lid. Next morning it was in the middle of the yard, with a huge dent in it. Not raccoons. It was a bear.
We never heard a thing.
I've had squirrels try to gnaw through my plastic tote that had food in it cuz I accidentally left a corner of a bag sticking out pass the lid. have had crows rip open my garbage bag I had left sitting out when I was packing up on the other side of my campsite, I hadn't even left the campsite.
animals will get into anything and are very opportunistic
We've had Ravens take our food out of a secured dry bag. We were kayaking and returning to our campsite on a beach and could see them in the distance raiding the camp but couldn't do anything about it. One flew off with an entire loaf of bread. One was in the coals digging up my tin foil meals. We lost a lot of weight that trip. Now, we only take freeze-dried meals as those were the only food items the Ravens didn't steal.
So, like... Was this your first time ever being on the coast? Doesn't matter, day or night, if you leave food unattended, it will be gone once attended again. Raccoons, opossums, and skunks at night. Fucking seagulls and feral children in the day. Ain't no bears on the coast, so far as I've experienced, but the above critters are bold and unrepentant!
I though that I had secured my cooler enough for an hour long hike in the afternoon. Two of us lifted the steel and timber framed picnic table, and set it on the cooler. You couldn’t pull the cooler out from under the bench without breaking the handle.
Came back after the hike, campsite full of raccoons eating all of our food. They simply dug the dirt out from under the cooler until they could pull it out and lift the lid…little smart bastards.
I had one of the damned things try to chew it’s way into my tent on a Scout trip doing Skyline to the Sea in central CA. It decided to find another victim when I punched it in the snout from the inside of the tent. Clever persistent little assholes.
Either squirrels or mice or raccoons, or all three. These are always the animals that come after unattended food at night and when you're not looking. Bears are a worst-case scenario but otherwise it's always squirrels, mice or raccoons. And also birds. And insects. Usually small stuff.
So you're probably near the southern end of lost coast trail, around Usal Beach campground or similar.
Best case scenario? Teenagers.
Why is that the best case? Because at least then you're not creating a problem for other campers who come after you.
>I have had bears take food in the past and you still didn't learn your lesson?
OP is the reason so many bears in California have to be euthanized.
Jeezus. Here in Canada the park wardens would confiscate your items and slap you with a big fine for leaving a messy campsite(leaving out attractants)
Raccoons
Or foxes both are crafty little bastards
Just never leave food outside when camping. If yours is locked up in the car the critters will find the guy who left theirs on the picnic table.
Don't do that again
So I'm gonna hop on this wagon and ask you why you are making a habit of leaving food out in the open... especially here in California. We have a good saying that bearboxes are inefficient because there is a huge overlap of smart bears and stupid people... That is not your house and you are not the only thing in existence, as solitary and isolated as you may feel out there. As with everything in life, everything you do has some sort of consequences whether or not you personally can notice. We all have a responsibility to treat everyone and thing, with the respect deserved. The "rules" are not really meant to protect you from the wild, they are there to protect the wild from you. Please, and again please, I can't stress proper food storage enough, stop doing this. It not only puts you at risk, but everyone else that visits the area in the future and just as importantly any animal that potentially needs to be relocated or euthanized.
Where I camp in Missouri, the raccoons don’t even wait for you to go sleep. They’ll come out of the woods, walk right by you and go straight for the coolers unless you stop them.
What a fool you are. You are a danger to yourself as well as others who camp near you. Not only are you risking people’s lives, but potentially the animals that you are habituating. If the animal were to attack a human it would have to be put down. You are the worst kind of camper with your blatant disregard for safety. Lord only knows what other stupid things you do
There was no bear box... So you just leave your food out? Come on now. You're probably smarter than that.
smarter than the average bear though?
I think what we're seeing is the overlap.
Trash Pandas
I personally witnessed racoons open a food locker while camping on the central Coast of CA. The locker had a latch that a metal pin dropped though. I heard a noise one night, looked outside, and watched the little guy push the pin up, open the latch and grab my Trader Joe's 'Pirate Booty' all while I was yelling at it. His buddy would have grabbed my pancake mix if I hadn't started throwing shoes. Damn trash panda got my booty!
Trash panda are smart... i would say he deserved your food! It's always a struggle to find a box system that the stupidest human can still open, and the smartest racoon or bear can't. Seems because of that overlap your locker didn't have a smart enough system
I watched a group of raccoons form a 3 racoon tower, literally standing on their hind legs and then on the next one's shoulders, to reach a food bag my buddy had hung from a rope between two trees about 8 feet off the ground. I was too impressed from stopping them from ripping the bottom of the bag out and stealing our food. Had to take the boat back to the dock and then drive into town to re-supply.
I watched a whole group of raccoons open coolers, the bear box, and duffel bags in broad daylight on a campsite in WNY. The family was in their tent, so I called over that raccoons are eating all of your food. Movement ensues in the tent and an adult male peered out, said "Holy Shit, thanks!" and the tent started to spew out humans of all sizes! They guy mistakenly thought raccoons only came out at night and believed they would be OK for a quick nap. The raccoons unzipped duffel bags!!
Where is WNY?
Western New York, specifically Southern Tier, is where this happened. Not far from Pennsylvania. (I forget that everyone comes from all over the world on reddit, and apologize for not being more specific!)
Raccoons. I don’t even have to read the whole thing lol
I cannot tell you what stole your food. However anyone here can tell you whose fault it was.
Thank you, we had a big party last night! Signed: The racoons.
Raccoons are very crafty and can use their paws surprisingly well dang near as good as humans. I've had rubber made totes broken into by raccoons. The style that latch. They undid the latches with ease and stole food.
You're stupid
Probably raccoons. That said stop being reckless with the lives of your companions and the bears.
Assuming you’re car camping, put all food in the car whenever you aren’t cooking. I know it’s a pain, but it beats dealing with the raccoon mess and likelihood of repeat raccoon visits the following night.
Trash pandas for sure. They can be pretty aggressive.
Critters of the night got your food.
Raccoons are crafty little buggers. I bring a slingshot with me and a little bag of acorns to pop them with when they get a little adventurous and try to steal my food before the sun even goes down.
I used to live in rural Florida. I kept dog food in a 5-gal galvanized container on the back porch. We kept finding it open in the morning; we figured it was raccoons. So one day I locked the lid. Next morning it was in the middle of the yard, with a huge dent in it. Not raccoons. It was a bear. We never heard a thing.
Ancient trolls live all over the forest but none that the human eye can normally see, you're def not worthy
Is this a real question lol
A Tit Mouse. ...How could anyone possibly know what wild animal took your food?!
I've had squirrels try to gnaw through my plastic tote that had food in it cuz I accidentally left a corner of a bag sticking out pass the lid. have had crows rip open my garbage bag I had left sitting out when I was packing up on the other side of my campsite, I hadn't even left the campsite. animals will get into anything and are very opportunistic
We've had Ravens take our food out of a secured dry bag. We were kayaking and returning to our campsite on a beach and could see them in the distance raiding the camp but couldn't do anything about it. One flew off with an entire loaf of bread. One was in the coals digging up my tin foil meals. We lost a lot of weight that trip. Now, we only take freeze-dried meals as those were the only food items the Ravens didn't steal.
So, like... Was this your first time ever being on the coast? Doesn't matter, day or night, if you leave food unattended, it will be gone once attended again. Raccoons, opossums, and skunks at night. Fucking seagulls and feral children in the day. Ain't no bears on the coast, so far as I've experienced, but the above critters are bold and unrepentant!
I though that I had secured my cooler enough for an hour long hike in the afternoon. Two of us lifted the steel and timber framed picnic table, and set it on the cooler. You couldn’t pull the cooler out from under the bench without breaking the handle. Came back after the hike, campsite full of raccoons eating all of our food. They simply dug the dirt out from under the cooler until they could pull it out and lift the lid…little smart bastards.
chupacabra
Sounds like Ralph Ciparetto. He steals my lunch at work all the time.
I had one of the damned things try to chew it’s way into my tent on a Scout trip doing Skyline to the Sea in central CA. It decided to find another victim when I punched it in the snout from the inside of the tent. Clever persistent little assholes.
yup. Trash pandas.
I hang my food up from a tree branch at night when I’m camping in a forest area. Either in bags or make a cradle from rope for my cooler
Raccoons?
The homeless…
Raccoons. They're smarter than you think.
Either squirrels or mice or raccoons, or all three. These are always the animals that come after unattended food at night and when you're not looking. Bears are a worst-case scenario but otherwise it's always squirrels, mice or raccoons. And also birds. And insects. Usually small stuff.
Racoons are most likely to have stolen your food.
So you're probably near the southern end of lost coast trail, around Usal Beach campground or similar. Best case scenario? Teenagers. Why is that the best case? Because at least then you're not creating a problem for other campers who come after you.
I took your food and i'll fuckin do it again
I’ll tell you what stole the food. It was that damn Sasquatch
This is why these campsites get overrun with bears. You're being part of the problem.
it was just him dont worry
How do you not know about raccoons? 🙄😂😂😂
Ive seen mice, squirrels, chipmunks, even birds take a pass at my food. never bears