How to Avoid Dangerous Wildlife While Camping (Noise and Food Storage)

Almost every serious wildlife encounter starts one of two ways: an animal is surprised at close range, or it has learned that people mean food. Both are largely preventable.

Make noise

Especially near water, in thick vegetation, around blind corners, and where a stream is loud enough to mask your approach. Talk, sing, clank something. Most large animals want to avoid you and will if given the chance.

Bells are less effective than voices — a human voice carries the specific information that you are a person.

Store food away from where you sleep

This is the one people skip on short trips, and it is the one that causes repeat problems at popular sites.

• Keep food, rubbish, toothpaste and anything scented out of the tent.
• Store it well away from where you sleep — in a bear canister, hung, or in a vehicle where that is the local practice.
• Cook away from your tent, and clean up thoroughly.

One large bag for all food means one thing to secure.

If you meet something large

• Do not run. It triggers pursuit in most species.
• Back away slowly, facing it, speaking calmly.
• Make yourself look large.
• Never come between an animal and its young, or an animal and its food.
• Give it a clear escape route — a cornered animal is a different animal.

The important caveat

The correct response genuinely varies by species and region — what is right for one large mammal is wrong for another, and advice that circulates online is often confidently wrong for where you are standing.

Read the guidance for the specific area you are visiting. Land management agencies publish it, and it is short.

Smaller things, bigger problems

Statistically, ticks, mosquitoes, wasps and rodents cause far more trouble than any large mammal.

• Check for ticks daily, and remove them with fine tweezers, straight out, close to the skin.
• Know the signs of a serious allergic reaction — swelling of face, lips or throat, or breathing difficulty — and treat that as an emergency.
• Keep food sealed so rodents do not chew through your pack for it.