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Sow Black Bear And Cub Moved From Grand Teton National Park To Zoo

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Day trippers and backpackers who failed to properly stow their coolers, packs and tote bags while enjoying a day at String, Leigh and Jenny lakes and the nearby backcountry in Grand Teton National Park are responsible for a sow black bear and her cub being sent to a zoo in South Dakota for the rest of their lives.

Park officials announced Sunday that the bears were captured this past Wednesday after they had exhibited a recurring pattern of heading to the lakes to snatch a meal from food left unattended by visitors.

"Due to a long history of nuisance behavior, this bear and her cub were removed from the park and relocated to the Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on Saturday," a park release said. "The decision to remove the bears from the park was made out of concern for public safety."

According to the release, on the afternoon of August 14 rangers "hazed the adult black bear away from the String Lake picnic area. The two bears then ventured into the Teton backcountry where, later that weekend, the mother black bear was photographed tearing into a backpack and stomping on a tent at a backcountry campsite in her search for food."

Once the bears were captured, biologists were able to identify the sow as the one that had gotten into visitors' coolers, packs, and bags on 17 occasions between 2012 and 2014.

"She was teaching her young cub that same undesirable behavior," the release said. "Park managers welcomed the opportunity to relocate both of these bears to the same zoo, as the alternative would have likely included separation of the cub from its mother and euthanization of the adult."

It is worth noting that failure by park visitors—including local residents—to properly secure food items and other scented items led to this action to remove the bears from their native habitat. This female bear has repeatedly gotten into backpacks and coolers left unattended by people who were swimming and picnicking in the String Lake and Leigh Lake areas.

In the past three years, park staff have seen numerous food storage violations by visitors using the String Lake beaches and picnic areas. People have left unsecured food items unattended while they enjoy wading, swimming, and boating on String Lake, and there have been many reports of black bears receiving human food. Because of this pattern of careless food storage, park officials are considering management actions including a prohibition against food items in this area.

Although cliché, it is too often true that a fed bear is a dead bear. A human food-conditioned female black bear was euthanized in mid-June out of concern for public safety after it climbed into the trunk of a vehicle and attempted to enter cabins at Jenny Lake Lodge.

Fortunately, this newly captured black bear and her cub will not suffer that same fate. However, placement of wild bears in zoos is not always a viable option, and park visitors must realize that careless actions can lead to the death of bears that have been corrupted by human food. Once a bear acquires human food, it loses its fear of people and may become dangerous. Human carelessness doesn’t just endanger people; it can also result in a bear’s death.

Park officials strongly remind local residents and visitors that proper storage of food items and disposal of garbage is vitally important. With simple actions, people can help keep a bear from becoming human food-conditioned and possibly save its life. Detailed information about how to behave in bear country is available at park visitor centers and online at www.nps.gov/grte.

Comments

people are ignorant and just plain self-absorbed and stupid.

 


The park service should have every person entering the park take an oath and sign a contract of compliance with park rules with automatic   $500.00 fine for any violation cited- raise the ranger salaries and buy more people to hand out tickets. 


in addition to fining lazy, irresponsible park visitors, how about publicly shaming them? If the threat of having you gear destroyed and your provisions ruined by wildlife isn't enough for these lazy ***  to behave responsibly, NAME THEM and where they're from! A wall of shame just might do the trick. 


I have taken it upon myself to photograph people feeding animals in YNP. They are generally near or in their vehicles (except when they send their kids out to stand next to the animals), so I also photograph their vehicles.

 

I turn these over to the park service and have been thanked...but I have been told this violates the privacy of the people breaking park regulations. WHAT???

 

If we all start doing it when we see this happening, maybe something will be done. By citing people for these violations will help get us more rangers.

 

I, too, believe guests of the park should sign a compliance statement and more people should be cited. May be a bit of a wait at the entrances when they first put something like this into action, BUT it won't go on for long as more rangers will be hired to both service entrances, manage animal jams...and to locate violaters.

 

The reason, I've been told they don't hand out more violations is that it would deter people from coming...REALLY??? Then so be it...great way to correct stupid.

 

As someone who lives near the park, I've heard everything from, "I'm an American and this place belongs to the American people" to "our car doors are open, if they get aggressive, we can run fast to our car" to "this is our only opportunity to see bison/bears/elk/those things that look lie prehistoric animals (they mean pronghorn) and you have no right to tell us we can't go up to them".

 

The park service has long ignored the right of the animals to live in their wilderness areas over the right of people to put them in danger. 


Ed Abbey was 100% right when he wrote that as long as humans insist on invading the habitat of bears, we shouldn't be upset when a grizzly occasionally harvests a trespasser.


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