Bear!
by Ranger Jeffrey Trust

A few summers ago a friend and I were camping near Half Dome when my friend woke me up: bears had found us. I awoke to see a bear cub-- no, two bear cubs-- staring at us. The mother bear was nearby, my friend told me. Once these two bear cubs saw that we were awake and were staring back at them, they scampered off. These bears had yet to learn how they might instantly gain all the food they needed for the day from humans. A Yosemite bear can easily find an ice chest full of food left unattended in a campsite or in a car. It is far easier for a bear to get food from an ice chest than to spend all day gathering grasses, berries, and grubs.

Seeing a bear is always exciting for me-- and this was the first time I'd ever seen a bear cub, let alone two! How exciting! How cute they were! I hoped that they would not come to rely on human food, because if they did, they'd lose their natural fear of humans, and instead of running away when they noticed we were awake, they might become bolder: They might even become a danger to people.

It was only a few months later that I read about another bear family; another mother and her two cubs. There was an article in the newspaper about this bear family. And they were in the newspaper because they were dead. And they were dead because we had killed them. They were killed not by hunters and not by accident. They were killed on purpose, by park rangers. We, the National Park Service, charged with protecting wildlife, had killed a mother bear and her two cubs. Why? We killed them because we had to, despite federal laws; despite numerous signs and fliers; despite the endless, tireless, and valiant efforts of wildlife managers. Despite all of this, people had left food in their cars. The bear family had become too aggressive because of the availability of food in people's cars. They had lost their fear of humans. Not only would they fail to run at the sight of humans, but they would continue to approach. The bears would scare people away in order to get food. The bears were so aggressive that they were a danger to people.

You might ask why we don't just relocate the bears. We used to and sometimes we still do, in utter desperation, for we hate to kill bears. Unfortunately, the vast majority of relocated bears finds their way back to where they came from and return to their former ways.

It is up to you and to me to store all of our food properly: not anywhere in a car, only in a bear box; always in a bear box. By not storing food properly, you and I are killing bears.

Visit Bears in Yosemite for more information about bears.