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Yellowstone bears once again proving to be roadside attractions
POST-INTELLIGENCER NEWS SERVICES
For many decades, lasting through the 1960s, the so-called "roadside bears" that took food handouts from Yellowstone National Park visitors became one of the park's most popular attractions.
But beginning in the late 1960s and continuing into the 1970s, as park managers shifted toward a more natural scene in Yellowstone, they cracked down on bear-feeding and closed down the park garbage dumps that kept many of the bears fat and happy.
Soon bears were no longer roadside attractions and repeat visitors complained that one of the park's greatest spectacles had disappeared.
Now, some 20 years later, roadside bears are again becoming a common sight in Yellowstone.
But there's a big difference. Instead of taking handouts, they are seeking natural food along road corridors that may be some of the last vacant bear habitat left in the park.
"It's getting to the point where visitors now have a high probability of seeing bears again," park grizzly bear biologist Kerry Gunther said.
"In this case the bear is not eating marshmallows -- it's killing an elk or feeding naturally."
Park biologists count about four grizzly bears and five to 10 black bears that are now spending much of their time along roadsides, attracting crowds just like the old roadside bears.
And today's resulting "bear jams" present just as big a challenge for park rangers, who try to accommodate the public fascination with bears while at the same time keeping people a safe distance from the carnivores.
"The bears know that on roads there are going to be hundreds of people, but they're OK out in the meadow," a ranger said.
"They've learned to live with us. If we can behave, we can live with them."
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