Now is the time of year when I really enjoy running trail cameras. The second best thing to deer hunting for me is checking trail cameras to see what bucks are living in my hunting areas. However, in the last couple years, my trail camera arsenal has taken a pounding from black bears. It seems like when mast crops are available, bears increase in population within those areas.

For anyone that has experience using trail cameras, most have had some unpleasant occurrences with bears destroying their cameras. Many say that bears attack the cameras out of curiosity. There’s also some conspiracy theory that bears relate trail cameras to bee hives. “My guess is that bears attack trail cameras out of curiosity,” said Jake Hofer, who is part owner of Exodus Trail Cameras. “That’s just my guess though. I can’t say I know for sure.”

Personally, I’ve seen even greater amounts of attacks on cell cameras versus traditional trail cameras. Some hunters have told me that they believe the antenna on a cell camera is what attracts bears.

I’ve also tried hanging trail cameras 10 to 12 feet high in a tree to hide from bears. Even that didn’t fully eliminate bear problems. Bears are excellent tree climbers and will often climb trees to seek out food sources or other things of interest. If an aggressive bear locates your trail camera high up in a tree, he will likely climb the tree to get it.

Not only do bears attack and damage trail cameras, but sometimes they carry them away for long distances in their mouths. I had a cell camera last year that kept sending me pictures for quite a long time as a bear was carrying it away. I never retrieved the camera when I went in to find it. I believe the bear carried the camera for several hundred yards until releasing it. Many times I’ve gone to check a trail camera and when I got to the tree the camera was placed on, it was no longer attached to the tree. My first instinct is always human theft, but most times I have found the camera within 20 yards of the tree, crunched up into pieces, which surely indicates a bear attack. Sometimes we assume trail cameras have been stolen by humans but it’s also likely they were grabbed by bears.

There’s very little that can be done to repair trail cameras that have been attacked by bears. If so, the cost of the repair would likely be more than the price of a new one. In most cases, bears break the lenses and poke holes in the camera. This usually leads to unrepairable water damage from rainfall. I have had a little bit of luck when the bear only breaks the camera’s lens. Some of those cameras still lasted a season or two until finally collecting too much water. I would recommend in any case when bears damage trail cameras to at least test them to see if they still work. Just don’t expect them to last long.

Unfortunately, both deer and bear share a lot of the same food types. This means that if you are scouting deer around food sources, the bears will be there as well. There’s really no way to avoid them if you are a deer hunter trying to scout with trail cameras.

There’s a variety of “bear proof” security boxes on the market that claim that you can protect your trail cams by using security cases. According to an article posted by Exodus Trail Cameras on their website, the company explains that bears are notorious for damaging trail cameras. They do recommend security cases for trail cameras to prevent bears from destroying them. The company also offers a bear protection warranty program with every sale. If a bear damages your trail camera, they will sell you a new one at a 50% discount. Nonetheless, the biggest issue with using security boxes is that many of them cost nearly as much as a new trail camera. It is also common for bears to still reach inside the security boxes and do damage with their claws.

There really is no proven way to eliminate bear problems with trail cameras. If you are using trail cams in bear country, you should expect to have damages at some point and most likely every hunting season, especially if you are using multiple cameras for scouting. My best advice is to relocate trail cam locations if you are having bear problems. I’ve found that bears will continue to go back to the same trees where cameras have been placed to destroy them. Sometimes just moving 30 to 40 yards away can be enough to elude repeated bear attacks.