Grizzly Bears Emerging From Dens In Yellowstone

You wouldn’t know it from the deep snowpack covering the park. But it appears some of Yellowstone’s bears believe winter is drawing to a close.

On Tuesday, March 1, park employees observed grizzly bear tracks on Mary Mountain, which is roughly near the center of the lower loop of the park’s Grand Loop Road.

Bears begin looking for food soon after they emerge from their dens. They are attracted to elk and bison which have died during the winter. Carcasses are an important enough food source that bears will sometimes react aggressively when surprised while feeding on them.

Park regulations require visitors to stay 100 yards from black and grizzly bears at all times. The best defense is to stay a safe distance from bears and use binoculars, a telescope, or telephoto lens to get a closer look.

Hikers, snowshoers, and cross-country skiers are encouraged to travel in groups of three or more, make noise on the trail, and keep an eye out for bears. Bear pepper spray has proven to be a good last line of defense, if kept handy and used according to directions when the bear is within 30 to 40 feet.

While firearms are allowed in the park, the discharge of a firearm is a violation of park regulations. Even the park’s law enforcement rangers who carry firearms on duty rely on pepper spray, rather than their weapons, as the most effective means to deal with a bear encounter.

Seasonal Bear Management Area closures are designed to reduce encounters with bears in areas that have a high density of elk and bison carcasses, and provide areas where bears can roam free from human disturbance. Prior to hiking, skiing, or snowshoeing in the park, visitors are encouraged to check the park web site at http://www.nps.gov/yell/parkmgmt/bearclosures.htm or at park visitor centers for dates and locations of bear closure areas.

Visitors are also reminded to keep food, garbage, barbecue grills and other attractants stored in hard-sided vehicles or bear-proof food storage boxes. This helps keep bears from becoming conditioned to human foods, and helps keep park visitors and their property safe.

Bear sightings should be reported to the nearest visitor center or ranger station as soon as possible.

"Park regulations require visitors to stay 100 yards from black and grizzly bears at all times."

100 yards? Yeah. At the very least.

I'm not debating that other people are dumb. But me? I know how fast that bear can run if he decides to. And I know what he can do with his paws/claws. And I also know that he thinks of me as a walking ham sandwich. He may just be eating his salad before his main course.

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itchbay
I'm not debating that other people are dumb.

I was inside a car while filming. Mr. Ranger was okay with that.

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itchbay
I'm not debating that other people are dumb. But me? I know how fast that bear can run if he decides to. And I know what he can do with his paws/claws. And I also know that he thinks of me as a walking ham sandwich. He may just be eating his salad before his main course.

Given all the smells during the summer when Yellowstone is overrun with humans cooking bacon and tossing food carelessly, it seems unlikely that properly mature bears perceive human-associate activities and bodies to be food at all. Given all the smells created, it is remarkable that so few bear-human events occur in Yellowstone. We are obviously prime food if it only occurred to them (or wolves) to pursue us intentionally we would be doomed.

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

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Frank Furter
We are obviously prime food if it only occurred to them (or wolves) to pursue us intentionally we would be doomed.

Actually it would doom and bears and wolves if they went for us.