For the second time this summer a black bear in Yellowstone National Park has been put down for developing too great a taste for human food. Park officials say the bear was killed Thursday after breaking into the backpacks of a "large group" of hikers.
What park officials can't yet say is whether anyone was cited for poor food handling. The spate of bears that have been euthanized in recent years begs the question of how humans who played a role in habituating the bruins to human foods were reprimanded.
Traveler has made inquiries to parks where bear incidents have gained visibility -- Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Sequoia, Yosemite and Denali -- both last year and in recent weeks and has had mixed responses. In Sequoia officials say they fortunately haven't had many problem bears, while in Denali they say only two wildlife-related citations were handed out to park visitors during 2007. In Grand Teton, more than 100 citations and warnings were handed out last year.
Backcountry -- and even front-country -- travelers in these parks should certainly be well-aware of how to stay safe in bear country, and how to keep bears from becoming used to human foods. In Yellowstone, for instance, hikers who are spending one or more nights in the backcountry must sit through a video that runs about 15 minutes and highlights how to keep a clean camp, how to store your foods, and what to do if you encounter a bear.
That informational process begs the question of how the latest black bear to die was able to rip "into into the packs of a large group of backcountry hikers"? Where were the hikers at the time? Had they properly stashed their packs?
According to Yellowstone officials, the 130-pound sub-adult male bear was killed because it posed a continuing threat to the safety of park visitors and employees. There have been multiple incidents involving this bear damaging property and obtaining human foods in the Hellroaring and Yellowstone River drainages in the north end of the park.
Repeated efforts to trap the bear were unsuccessful. Late Thursday afternoon, however, park staff caught the bear rooting through the backpacks.
"Based on his aggressive behavior, lack of fear of people, and its success at getting human food, the decision was made to immediately euthanize the bear," said park officials. "The area was cleared of all visitors and the bear was shot."
In Yellowstone regulations require you to stay a hundred yards – the length of a football field – away from black and grizzly bears at all times. When not in use, food, garbage, barbecue grills and other attractants must be stored in hard-sided vehicles or bear-proof food storage boxes or hung at least 10 feet above the ground and 4 feet out from the trunk of the tree.
Due to deep snows last winter, in combination with the very late spring we experienced this year, many bears are in poor shape making it more likely that they will seek human foods. Once bears become conditioned to human foods they are much more likely to damage property and injure people in their efforts to obtain human foods.
Comments
Ted,
Thanks for the kudos, though without the depth and breadth of readers and their comments the site would be mono-dimensional.
That said, re your thoughts on bears and hunting, the devil's advocate surely might ask why the brown bears in Katmai don't seem to associate hunters with dire consequences. No doubt they are desensitized a great deal by the photographers and anglers who surround them much of the viewing season, but after getting plunked by arrows and bullets, those that survive such encounters you'd think would learn to flee humans and pass on that message, no?
In general, though, I agree that, more and more, national parks are turning into open-air zoos, ones quickly becoming genetically isolated as well.
Kurt,
Katmai & its bears! An example to tempt any advocate!
Poaching probably gains a bit higher profile in Katmai National Park than elsewhere (such as Yellowstone National Park) thanks to the dramatizations of Timothy Treadwell. He claimed that his own law-breaking and stark risks were justified by the specter of poaching, and he worked this assertion into his videography and public performances ... as the villain in his narrative.
The bears of Katmai have remained 'Park-bears' despite occasional abuse by trespassers and killings by Park authorities, just as the bears in Yellowstone remain 'Park-bears' despite a few poachers and killings by Rangers. The behavior of bears in Katmai isn't exceptional in this sense.
The case for hunt-conditioning of even dangerous bears remains as I depicted it previously: Hunting in Alaska produces healthy populations of grizzly bears across broad swaths of the general terrain that are wary of humans, permitting the two species to coexist in an integrated ecoscape.
Some say the only way to ensure the well-being of bears, is to drive humans from their habitat. Others say that to ensure the safety of humans, we must drive bears from our habitat. Both these assertions are mistaken, and to adopt either as our policy will impoverish the prospects & outlook for both species.