MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS, Wyo.– A female adult black bear in Yellowstone National Park was euthanized on Friday after “concerning incidents” around becoming food-conditioned at a backcountry campsite, national park officials said.
According to the NPS, the bear crushed an empty tent at a campsite at the beginning of June.
A month later, at the same campsite, the bear climbed the campsite’s food storage pole and tore down properly-stored food bags, then ate the food.
TOURISTS GET DANGEROUSLY CLOSE TO BEAR FOR PHOTO OP AT YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
A person hanging a bag of food and other attractants from a food storage pole in a backcountry campsite near Yellowstone Lake
(NPS / Neal Herbert / FOX Weather)
All of Yellowstone’s backcountry campsites include proper bear-resistant storage measures. And all campers are required to hang their food from the food storage poles or use a bear-resistant storage box to deter bears from getting to human food.
Yellowstone said it’s not uncommon for bears to get hold of human food within the park, and when they do, they can quickly become food-conditioned.
When a bear is food-conditioned, it can get aggressive or act dangerously around people, putting both humans and wildlife in danger.
The park said because the bear’s behavior was escalating– damaging property and going to lengths to get human food– it posed a clear threat to visitor safety.
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June 14, 2015: Black bear sniffing dumpster near Ice Box Canyon in Yellowstone National Park.
(Yellowstone National Park/Jim Peaco / FOX Weather)
“We go to great lengths to protect bears and prevent them from gaining access to human food in all areas of the park,” said Kerry Gunther, Yellowstone bear management biologist. “But occasionally, a bear outsmarts us or overcomes our defenses. When that happens, we sometimes have to make the difficult decision to remove the bear from the population to protect people and property.”
The last time Yellowstone killed a bear for similar behavior was in July 2020, when a black bear injured campers and got to human food at a backcountry campsite in the park, the park said.
