Proper food storage is an important consideration when visiting wilderness areas inhabited by grizzly bears and black bears.

The U.S. National Park Service explains why human food is bad for bears:

“By eating human food, bears can lose their preference for natural food sources and their fear of humans. Over time, these bears may begin approaching people in search of food. They can become aggressive, unpredictable, and dangerous.”

In order to protect bears from harm caused by human food, several organizations test food storage equipment such as bear canisters to ensure they cannot be opened by bears.

• The Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC)
• The Sierra Interagency Black Bear Group (SIBBG)

While these approvals are important, individual National Parks maintain their own lists of approved bear canisters which take into account certifications as well as real-world data from within their park:

• Yellowstone
• Sequoia & Kings Canyon
• Yosemite
• Grant Teton
• Rocky Mountain
• Inyo
• Lassen Volcanic
• Olympic
• North Cascades
• Gates of the Arctic
• Denali
• Glacier Bay

Good sources of information

• Andrew Skurka’s Bear Canister Buyer’s Guide
• Outdoor Herbivore’s Where Bear Canisters are Mandatory Article
• Greenbelly’s 7 Best Bear Canisters for Backpacking Article

About this website

This website was created to be a hub for information regarding bear canisters and to help present the basic information in an easy-to-digest format.