Bison Calf’s Death Shows Dangers of People in Yellowstone

ou812 · May 18, 2016

What is wrong with people these days.....

vontar · May 18, 2016

a case of they think they are doing good and cause more harm due to the lack of knowledge of the situation.

peejman · May 18, 2016

You can't fix stupid...

Grand Torino · May 18, 2016

Another incident of people doing crap they don't have a clue about. Everyone is a professional so it seems.

Omega · May 18, 2016

Sounds more to me like the Rangers just wanted to make a point. Why is it that when bears get habituated to people they go out of their way to retrain their fear of people and not much effort was made to save this animal. Even if the herd didn't eventually take it in, I am sure there are more than a few sanctuaries it could have been moved to. No, they just wanted to make a point and get some media exposure about this problem, and it is a problem, and since Bison have become so plentiful, well...

Danger Rane · May 18, 2016

On the Ranger station broadcast "net call, net call......another tourist has afforded us the opportunity for tender Bison burgers tonight, they taste great so don't be late! Tight green shorts are optional"

peejman · May 18, 2016

4 hours ago, Omega said:

Sounds more to me like the Rangers just wanted to make a point. Why is it that when bears get habituated to people they go out of their way to retrain their fear of people and not much effort was made to save this animal. Even if the herd didn't eventually take it in, I am sure there are more than a few sanctuaries it could have been moved to. No, they just wanted to make a point and get some media exposure about this problem, and it is a problem, and since Bison have become so plentiful, well...

Who tries to retrain bears? I've never heard of that.

monkeylizard · May 18, 2016

8 minutes ago, peejman said:

Who tries to retrain bears? I've never heard of that.

Omega · May 18, 2016

36 minutes ago, peejman said:

Who tries to retrain bears? I've never heard of that.

Many places will scare the bears away when they get close to human areas:

They even have dogs trained to scare them as well:

http://animalrescuehome.com/the-bear-scaring-dog-reacted-in-the-sweetest-possible-way-to-a-fawn/

FL recommends scaring them off your property too:

http://myfwc.com/media/2577707/Scare-that-Bear-Statewide.pdf

peejman · May 18, 2016

@Omega I wouldn't consider shooing a curious bear away to retraining per se, but it can work to reinforce the idea that where-ever they are isn't where they should be. Once a bear associates people with food there's not really much that can be done.... Or more accurately it's generally deemed not worth the effort.

Omega · May 18, 2016

@peejman I guess it depends on how far gone the bear is, I've seen many videos of animal control using dogs and shotguns to scare a bear away from a populated area. I suppose if a bear deems a trashcan easier than getting food in the woods it may take that change of getting euthanized. One of the videos was from one of the northern states, Alaska maybe, and they had tags on the bear that showed she had been back to the trash heap a few times, so I don't know how well it works, but there is no doubt they keep trying to correct the behavior.

peejman · May 19, 2016

Living next to the Smoky's, we hear about problem bears fairly regularly. The park rangers shoo them away and relocate them which works sometimes, but like people, some bears are more stubborn than others. Most of the issues are people's fault, generally not storing food properly, or even baiting them in on purpose. But with the number of bears and how close people live now, the conflict is inevitable.

Using dogs to scare bears away is interesting. The park doesn't allow dogs most places because they say dogs attract bears. Obviously some dogs were bred to hunt bears, and I have friends who do that so it seems pretty fuzzy. The few occasions I've encountered bears around here, the bear was either completely oblivious or terrified and ran away as fast as it could.