Fladry, Snublebluss, and Bears

Fladry being tested in Idaho Wilderness; SnubleBluss used to detect bears

Fladry is an ancient technique where strings of flags are tied about eye level to a wolf, to direct the wolve's movement. It originated centuries ago in Eastern Europe and Russia, and is being revived today in the high mountains of Idaho, to keep wolf packs away from herds of sheep grazing in wilderness areas.

Snublebluss is a Swedish term to describe a method of placing a string or rope perimeter around a camp as a early detection system for incoming polar bears. If the perimeter is pushed in alarms and flares will go off.

Read about Snublebluss and polar bear safety from svalbard.net (<- need a swedish translator) at this link (in English). Get more information about Fladry from the International Wolf Center at this link.

I used an altered form of these techniques, probably closer to Snublebluss, to solve the problem of how to get some sleep when camping alone in Wilderness areas, and still to be forewarned of large animals coming in to camp.

Now maybe I could be called a damn coward, but evening in a secluded wilderness area of prime Grizzly territory finds me stringing 25 pound fishing line around my camp, with the ends tied to the loop trigger of 9-volt personal alarms, which are in turn tied to the trunk of a tree.

The fishing line can be strung long distances and still be effective, as long as it moves freely when snagged on something coming in through the perimeter. It usually takes three lines and alarms to completely encircle my camp. The fishing line perimeter is virtually invisible after dark. I started tying ribbons to it after walking into it myself and triggering the alarm a couple of times.

The philosophy behind all this is that if a large animal is headed straight towards my tent, I would like to be awake. See if you think I am clever or chicken after reading what happened to a backpacker in Yellowstone on August 30, 2002;

Mike Barbic of Plano, Texas, was sleeping in his tent along the Sportsman Trail in the Northwest section of Yellowstone, when he was awaken by a bear biting him through the side of the tent, ripping a hole in the tent fabric and collapsing the tent. Mike screamed, which scared the bear away. He lied there in the collapsed tent for about an hour, then when all was quiet he got up and set the tent back up and retreated back into it. My feeling is that Mike didn't sleep much the rest of the night, especially when he heard scratching noises out by the tree where he hung his food.

Mike walked to the trailhead the next day and drove his car to Mammoth Hot Springs, where he was treated for a puncture wound and a laceration of the right buttocks.

(read the NPS press release about the attack here).

Each time I took the trouble to sent up my alarm perimeter, I figured it would never go off, but was just a means for me to get some good sleep if all was quiet. I was wrong.

Last June I was camped just south of Yellowstone, right on the edge of Teton National Park on forest service land. At 3:30 am on the second night I was awoken by my alarm going off on the west side of camp. I grabbed my compressed air horn and shot off a few blasts to scare off whatever might have walked into the alarm perimeter. I put on my headlamp, pulled on my shoes without tieing them, and crawled out of the tent and scanned the forest for any movement. I then tied Ben and Maggie to a tree, and went out to investigate and turn off the alarm, holding my pepper spray at the ready with the safety tab off. As soon as I pulled the batteries out of the alarm, and the forest was quiet again, something big crashed off into the woods and ran down a ridgeline, sending rocks flying with each step, and flushing a grouse over by the ridge. I could hear each stride in a heavy-footed gallop to leave the area. My impression at the time was that a large bear had been investigating camp and hung around to watch from the trees until it's curiosity was satisfied or decided my alarms and boat air horn and flashlights and yelling 'go bear.' were all way too strange to mess with.

In retrospect, maybe I should have expected a nighttime visitor, when on the day before I came across a tree marked by a very tall Grizzly just a quarter mile from my camp.