As a backcountry ranger in Denali NPP, I never heard of alkaline batteries causing any problems with griz or black bears. Oh, I guess if you dipped them in something that smelled real good, they might be an attractant. Of course if it smelled "real good", I'd be attracted to your campsite, and advise you of your peril (from the bears, not me, unless it was yummy, and I'd been out for three or four days, then I'd try to talk you out of it, for your own good .
Also worked hand in hand with the 'bear techs', doing aversive therapy on bad bears...we had to set up camps, with attractants, to get the bad bears in, so we could punish them severely with rubber bullets, m80 shotgun whizbangers......and never did we ever use (sorry, trying to not fall on the floor, with a giggling attack) alkaline batteries as attractants.
EVERYBODY knows it LITHIUM batteries that attract bears.
Just kidding. Really, just kidding.
If a bear, black or griz, has gotten into human food, the mere scent of humans can be an attractant. I slept soundly in Denali National Park, with griz grazing 200 yards away. My food was inaccessible. I know the bear had never gotten food. The bear didn't associate me with food, so I was safe. I felt safer with griz nearby than I usually do when I go to town.
Grizzly bears are one of my speciality topics (spelling is correct, according to the way I pronounce it with my southern drawl)
Phil
