I am fortunate to have an international tourist attraction nearly right out my back door! Spent the week up in Yellowstone National Park with my husband and my daughter. When in the Park, hiking the trails, only about half of the people we meet are speaking English! Lots of visitors from all over the World, and they all seem to get alone just fine out in the woods.
Bears just get a bad rap! Right now, there's only about 150 Grizzly Bears in Yellowstone National Park, but every-bodies scared to death of them (they are big, and you really don't want to mess with them). I think the Ranger said there are about another 600 or so Black Bears (which can be brown) in the Park as well. Check out this link for the best information on statistics for Bears in Yellowstone.
Since records have been kept, there's only been 5 deaths from Bears in Yellowstone National Park. One other death in 1983 happened outside the West Entrance in the Rainbow Point Campground in the Gallatin National Forest.
Just this past July, a Grizzly Bear Mom with 3 cubs attacked tent campers in a campground outside of Cooke City Montana, one person was killed and several others were injured. Our hearts and prayers go out to the families involved in this terrible encounter. The bears have since been captured and euthanized. An investigation is underway to figure out why this happened, there is some speculation that a photographer may have been baiting the bears prior to the attack.
When these kind of headlines are in the news, bears become the evil empire of the forest. In reality, these incidents are extremely rare!
We did see a bear with 3 cubs in the Hayden Valley last Saturday evening. She was doing one of those food searches where she goes back and forth in a zig zag pattern searching for maybe a baby elk? Baby elk have no scent, so if a bear wants to find one, they need to do a strategic search. I had to use my binoculars just to watch these Bears because they were a good 150 yds away. The cubs were hiding in the sage brush, but every now and then, they would pop up their heads and check out the crowd of people watching them!
I would love to show you a picture of the Bears we saw, but I didn't get a good picture of them.
I did get a picture of the Teton's of Wyoming as the backdrop of a vacation pose. This was taken just above the Jackson Lake Lodge. Stunning!
The Quilting Realtor
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Many Dream Of Living In Montana I'm One of the Lucky One's That Already Do! Wanda Thomas Call or Text 406-698-8640 for help with all things Montana. |
The best book that I've ever read was "The Grizzly" by Enos A. Mills. The problem is not with the bears, but with the idiot tourists.
Hi Wanda ~ People are notoriously incapable of accurately assessing risk so it figures there would be a bear panic. We're on their turf for cripes sake.
Along these lines I was floored the other day to see an insane, super sensationalized segment on our local news about the skunks!!! that were frolicking in a Boston neighborhood. You would think they were reporting on rabid coyotes. It blew my mind.
Liz
Larry--I go to the Park to people watch as well as wildlife watch, on our way out on Sunday, idiot tourists were in a Bison Jam, some were snapping pictures 14 feet away from the Bison (they're in Rut).
Liz--I think Skunks are pretty cute, and sometimes they do get rabies in Yellowstone County (where I live), but I must say the very worst thing about skunks, is when my dog thinks they're cute too :(
I agree with Liz - we ARE on their turf so it's insane of us to blame them when our actions cause them to get freaked out. Hopefully more education is the key!
Hi Mike, Grizzlies used to be on the high plains by the hundreds, we killed the buffalo, a primary source of food for them at the time. We haven't been very good neighbors for them.
It usually comes down to ignorant humans interfering and I hate to hear about these magnificent animals having to be euthanized. When I was quite small my mom & dad took us to Yellowstone. I'll never forget the day campers were standing under a tree taking pictures of cubs. We were waiting for mama to show up.
Kathy, the days of Yogi Bear created a spectacle that featured picnic baskets as bear food. While my husband can be caught once in awhile speaking in "Yogi's" voice, we're really glad that at least respect for the bear is the main topic of Park Ranger's at campfire programs now.
Wanda, it is so unfortunate that the headlines are always so sensationalistic. How about a headline of "Ignorant person injured due to lack of respect for nature?" I guess that would not make a good headline. I agree with you 100% .