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Transcript

Hello, Bonjour! My name’s Britney, and I work for Parks Canada. I’m here to talk to you about camping with wildlife, and how to keep your campsite clean and safe from wildlife such as squirrels, raccoons, or other small rodents – even the possibility of bears.

[Video: hotdogs cooking on campfire]

This here is an example of a wildlife attractant and we ask that you keep your campsite clean of these when you’re offsite. Food, whether it be open or closed, needs to stay either inside of a vehicle or in a bear box. Attractants can also be considered if you have bug spray, citronella candles, or even toiletries like toothpaste and deodorant. These are all considered wildlife attractants because they do carry a scent.

Coolers are really important, whether they be open or closed, that they be kept in a secure location as well. Wildlife is aware what’s inside of these coolers, so even if they are closed they can become a wildlife attractant.

It’s really important that our campers are aware that we don’t permit wildlife attractants in the tent. So food, coolers, garbage – anything at all that carries a scent, we don’t want it kept inside of a soft-sided shelter like a tent. The wildlife can smell through the material and it can become hazardous.

So what we ask of our campers is that they keep their wildlife attractants in either a bear box, or a vehicle, or any other type of hard-sided things. A motor home is also fine. So, what a bear box is is it’s a compartment that will store your wildlife attractants – so garbage, food, coolers, we ask that you keep it all inside the bear box, closed, and secured.

Most of our campers do come with vehicles, so what we ask is that if they can, they keep it inside the trunk of their vehicle, out of sight and out of smell. It’s really important that the wildlife stays safe, and the campers stay safe, so that’s why we ask that all campsites stay free of wildlife attractants.

If you follow these simple guidelines, you’ll have a great camping experience.