Chip
Well-known member
Officials are investigating the possibility that the bear were being baited by a photographer.
One dead two injured in bear attack in MT Campground
- Thread starter SAR-EMT40
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TrishandAlex
New member
At the moment, these are just allegations...but if those allegations do turn out to be true, then I hope that photographer is convicted of manslaughter.
Drumhaggart
New member
And here's a report that says that the necropsy showed that the sow was light but healthy, not malnourished as was previously reported:
http://www.yellowstoneinsider.com/20100803657/news/articles/soda-butte-griz-light-but-not-malnourished.php
-Steve
http://www.yellowstoneinsider.com/20100803657/news/articles/soda-butte-griz-light-but-not-malnourished.php
-Steve
roadtripper
Well-known member
Many of the bears in the west are apparently going crazy this year. At least that's what many of the rangers in Sequoia and Yosemite were saying last week while I was there....
We actually had a large mother black bear come into our campground at dusk at the base of Mt. Whitney and steal a full-sized, fully-loaded 40lb backpack right out of our unlocked bear locker (it was unlocked because we naively thought that a bear would never come into our campsite while 5 of us were only 5 feet away). The bear just grabbed the backpack, threw it in its mouth and ran off. That seems mighty aggressive and desperate to me. We ended up chasing the bear down with about 10 of our campground neighbors to get it back. It dropped the bag after crossing a small stream. During the chase we ended up coming between the bear, the food, and its 2 cubs - scary stuff but nobody was hurt.
We also had a bear roaming around our campground in Yosemite a few nights in a row. One night it went from site to site hitting the bear boxes to see if any of them would open. The ranger told us the next morning that they can distinguish between the sound of a locked bear box and an unlocked one.
You gotta be really careful out west w/bears.
We actually had a large mother black bear come into our campground at dusk at the base of Mt. Whitney and steal a full-sized, fully-loaded 40lb backpack right out of our unlocked bear locker (it was unlocked because we naively thought that a bear would never come into our campsite while 5 of us were only 5 feet away). The bear just grabbed the backpack, threw it in its mouth and ran off. That seems mighty aggressive and desperate to me. We ended up chasing the bear down with about 10 of our campground neighbors to get it back. It dropped the bag after crossing a small stream. During the chase we ended up coming between the bear, the food, and its 2 cubs - scary stuff but nobody was hurt.
We also had a bear roaming around our campground in Yosemite a few nights in a row. One night it went from site to site hitting the bear boxes to see if any of them would open. The ranger told us the next morning that they can distinguish between the sound of a locked bear box and an unlocked one.
You gotta be really careful out west w/bears.
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Snowflea
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Doesn't really surprise me after witnessing a "bear-proof" trash can there (Whitney Portal) successfully opened by a bear. Have photos to prove it! Sadly for them, California bears are way too smart.
In the Sierras you cannot leave *anything* with an odor in a vehicle that might possibly be tempting to a bear--not even sunscreen, soap, or lip balm.
They also know that "cooler" means food (or possibly beer?). Friends of mine were fined and had their truck towed for leaving an empty, never used cooler in their vehicle at Yosemite.
DougPaul
Well-known member
Bears can smell that we have food* and are losing their fear of humans because we have stopped giving them reason to fear us. Since there is no penalty for trying, they are free to try anything and everything to get at our food, and are intelligent enough to learn from their successes.
The net effect is that bears that eat human food do better than and thus can out compete those that don't. As much as I hate to say it, being kind to problem bears, while better for the individual bear in the short term, is making the overall problem worse.
* Human food is much richer (calories/effort_required_to_obtain) than most natural food. Bears are in a race to gain weight as fast as possible to be able to breed (size and weight also give them a competitive advantage)--thus it is very desirable to them.
Doug
The net effect is that bears that eat human food do better than and thus can out compete those that don't. As much as I hate to say it, being kind to problem bears, while better for the individual bear in the short term, is making the overall problem worse.
* Human food is much richer (calories/effort_required_to_obtain) than most natural food. Bears are in a race to gain weight as fast as possible to be able to breed (size and weight also give them a competitive advantage)--thus it is very desirable to them.
Doug
