As soapberries and blueberries are getting ripe, there has been an increase in bear activity in berry-rich areas, including around East Fork, Sable, and Igloo/NPS file
A bear that stumbled upon picnickers in Denali National Park scared them off, but apparently found nothing to his liking for lunch.
The family had spread its blanket along a drainage in Igloo Canyon along the park road and was eating when the bear came wandering their way.
"They did not have bear spray and mistakenly believed they were unlikely to encounter bears near the road," a park release said. "A bear was walking along the road ahead of a bus, came around the corner, and turned into the drainage. The party immediately abandoned their items and retreated uphill, allowing the bear to walk into their picnic and begin investigating things, including ripping open a soft-sided cooler bag."
While most of the family was able to get into the park bus, "a member of their party who had been hiking further up the drainage came running down the drainage to within a short distance of the bear, saw the bear, and turned around and ran away, causing the bear to give chase for a few yards."
"Fortunately," the release continued, "the bear and person both stopped, the bear retreated to the edge of the drainage, and the person walked past the bear down the drainage and was able to board the bus. There was a lot of noise being made by people on the bus, and the bear left the area shortly thereafter.
"Based on what people observed and the status and quantity of the food once it was gathered up and returned to the party, it does not appear that the bear consumed any human food. The bear in this incident had been collared as part of the bear-traffic study, and we are continuing to monitor this bear’s location and behavior."
Park staff attributed "the fact that the bear did not immediately consume the food ... to a successful history of bear management that has given bears no opportunity to identify those scents and objects as being edible. It was also fortunate that a bus full of screaming people was present, preventing the bear from getting comfortable."
The release did not say whether the bear was a grizzly or black bear.
Regardless, the park release said that "visitor behavior like this, even out of ignorance, creates very dangerous situations both in that moment and for future visitors and the bears." Visitors to Denali should carry bear spray if they're out hiking, the release said, and know how to use it.
A week ago "on the East Fork gravel bar, a group of visitors deployed bear spray in an attempt to deter a bear that was passing by them about 100 yards from their location. The bear spray was deployed directly upwind, and blew back into the group, with painful results. Bear spray has an effective range of about 30 feet and is to be used when a bear is making a direct approach to you or your group," the release pointed out.
