The Adirondack State Park is a beautiful region for camping, hiking, and boating. Recently my spouse and I met family there for a group camping trip where we all stayed in the Rollin's Pond Campground.
Now, black bears are common in the Adirondacks, and hikers and campers in the region know to take precautions. Wilderness hikers and campers know to bear-bag their food in a tree or preferrably to use a bear-proof cannister. They have to be selective in choosing a cannister. One particular brand with a complex locking system has proven impervious to the mighty grizzly bears of the west, but has been figured out by certain savvy black bears in the Adirondacks (and only in the Adirondacks).
In car campgrounds, such as Rollin's Pond, the areas for camper garbage are protected by electric fences. Campers know to lock their foodstuffs up in their cars.
We kept our campsite clean and kept our food locked up overnight. One morning as we were collecting lunch at a trail head for a day-hike, I noticed a bag of colored candies that had been zipped up in my backpack had a little corner nibbled away. Although most of the candy was still there we didn't eat it, fearing contamination from rodent waste. We assumed a moment of carelessness had allowed a small intruder to enter the car through an open window or door. We chuckled, resolved to be more careful, and replaced the candy stash at a convenience store after our hike.
That night we carefully kept the car door and windows closed after accessing our car back at the campsite. Several family members were sharing our campsite, so cars and tents were very close together. After retiring, as night settled in, I realized I could hear the pitter patter of tiny feet running on the car hood. "Ha!" I thought "They are hoping we left something open again!"
The next morning I crawled out of the tent, stretched and yawned in the morning chill, and moved to the car to collect soap and towels for the morning ablutions. Something caught my eye. I looked down to see a single, colorful candy lying by the front tire. "Uh oh!" I thought.
I checked- the car was completely sealed. I opened the door and checked our cooler and fabric bag filled with items such as bread and crackers. All was well. Then I unzipped my backpack and pulled out the ziplock bag that contained the replacement bag of candy. It was suspiciously flat. Further examination showed that a corner had been nibbled in the ziplock and in the candy bag inside. Every last piece of candy was gone.
A new mental image formed of the activity I had heard the night before. The little beasties hadn't been scampering over the car hoping to find an open window. They didn't need one. They had already located a point of access the night before. What I was hearing was a steady relay organized to relocate that candy. One mouse or several (I assume it was mice) were infiltrating the car, working their way past the backpack zipper, crawling through the hole in the bags, filling their cheeks with candy, and carting them off to some personal stash. It was a successful raid which netted all the candy.
Apparently they were only interested in sweets because although other foods were much easier to access nothing else was touched. We still don't know where they were entering the car- it has never happened at home or anyhwere else we have hiked or camped. Lesson learned! ALL the food locked in the car will be in a cooler or similar container!
Evidently Adirondack mice are as clever as Adirondak bears.