I have always taken all the recommended precautions and only lost sleep once when a bear came into camp and found some left over food I had not properly disposed of. Shame on me. After I left Alaska I did have a friend and her son killed by a Brown Bear. So maybe I was naïve.

According to an article I read by Ray Jardine bears can be attracted to anything they associate with people (smells) if they have learned that people mean food (Yosemite), but not so where people have been careful to avoid that association (Lassen N.P.