Long running joke among park rangers. How do you identify bear scat? Look for the bear bells.
Seriously though, if you don't startle a bear or get too close to cubs there is little risk from them. They have been hunted enough to know to stay away. Make noise while hiking through bear country to avoid startling them.
One of the real dangers of Yellowstone is that your statement is not true. The animals haven't been hunted and most have very little fear of humans. The one exception are the wolves, who get shot by the rangers with rubber bullets when they get close to the road.Originally Posted by jrw
Yes and no. Younger bears, especially males, do cover a lot of territory. Radio collar studies in many large parks, both sides of the border, show that bears do move in and out of the parks covering 60+ miles a day when they are on the move. Larger specimens don't move around as much, presumably because they are able to defend their territory which keeps the smaller ones on the move until they reach full maturity and can then displace the aging residents.
In the more remote areas of the parks the bears are not accustomed to feeding on trash, and have not lost the fear of humans. Even the dump bears, which have no fear anymore, are more interested in doing their own thing and not attacking humans. Considering that raiding the garbage bins in campgrounds is a nightly activity, dump bear watching is/was a nightly attraction in some, they are far more interested in the trash than the campers in their tents or a lot of people would have died by now.
Have had some encounters in very remote areas where humans are a novelty apparently and there is no fear. One time, we came over a small ridge and looking behind we saw a confused looking bear coming downwind towards us. It was cocking its head, pricking up its ears as though it were trying to figure out what we were. We stood and watched it. It came to about 10 yards, circled around us a few times, lots of sniffing and then ambled off.
While felling trees on a property about an hour north of home, I caught whiff of another coming downwind to check me out. I stopped working and started watching for it. About 5 minutes later, the head of a small black bear popped out of some dogwoods. It looked at me for a while and then vanished back into the swamp I was on the edge of. Bears are a novelty in the area, but that was during the time that the spring bear hunt was banned, populations exploded and they moved south. It hung around for two years.
While I have had encounters with black, grizzly and polar bears and recognize that they are an intelligent quizzical species I do have a great respect for their ability to shred me into pieces if they so desire. I make my presence known to avoid surprising them and I keep a very clean campsite when in their territory so as not to attract them.
If the truth be known, I am more concerned about my safety with bull moose during the rutting season than bears.
EDIT: Should exclude white bear from moose comparison. They are more carnivorous than omnivorous. inuit sleep with rifle beside them for a reason when travelling. Only bear species that none of the natives who share the land with them refer to as 'brother bear'. Yet, have woken in the morning and found tracks going straight through campsites. Have come across them feeding on kills with no aggression towards me (distances of 100+ yards thankfully). Definitely wouldn't want to be up close and personal with one.
Last edited by jrw; 04-13-2012 at 02:03 PM.
Agree, and it doesn't even take a moose. Deer can hurt a human pretty bad already.
This is true but Rangers in the parks do intensive bear management work to try and keep bears from becoming to comfortable around people. (Im actually going to be interviewing a job, doing just that) While many in parks are still used to people and not fearful, they also will not attack you unless (like jrw said) startle them or get close to their cubs. Generally speaking if you are mindful that they are around, you have very little to worry about.
I also agree with the Bull moose comment. They have been known to charge trains and chase boats across lakes during rut.
Last edited by nvitalephotography; 04-13-2012 at 12:05 AM.
I would believe the Rangers do that with the bears. We came across a bear next to the road that was fishing in a small body of water. He was about 50 yards off the road and on all sides the water was surrounded by trees. Within 10 minutes traffic was backed up for a mile in either direction. After about ten minutes the bear suddenly bolted from the water and climbed a tree, just like something was after him. He then jumped from the tree and ran away. The action was out of character for what he was doing and I thought at the time that possibly a ranger had worked his way around and possibly shot him or startled him some how.
The wolves we saw last year were always on a dead run whenever they got close to the road. I have heard from others the rangers do shoot the wolves with rubber bullets to keep them scared of humans.
But it just isn't bear and wolves that are dangerous. Elk have little or no fear of any one, in Mammoth you can get just a few feet from one.
I took a run down to the Tetons and came across a very large Bull Moose close to Jackson Lake Lodge. There were 100 or so people with one ranger watching it eat, within 20 yards. The rangers do more people control than they do animal.
Point is the wildlife in these two big parks, really aren't what I would consider wild. The real danger to people is there own ignorance, because they can get that close to these big animals they think it is ok to get even closer.
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