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Kinda cool to see this on hackner news. My landlord manages bears for the greater Yellowstone area. So I have heard firsthand accounts about this. The bears ef
by d-sc 9y ago
Kinda cool to see this on hackner news. My landlord manages bears for the greater Yellowstone area. So I have heard firsthand accounts about this.
The bears effectively scoop the moths from the rocks using their claws. It's one of the most caloric dense foods they have.
- MichaelMoser123 9y agoThat was my question - the article also mentions bear managers. How do they manage them? Do they hold meetings with the bears?
- lpa22 9y agoFrom my experience with the Yellowstone bear managers I have talked to, they attempt to connect with the grizzlies in their youth as cubs. As the cubs grow older, the managers are able to promenade alongside them, join them at meals, and even camp alongside them at night with their future bear families. It establishes a human connection with the bears so they are one with the park.
- sirtaj 9y agoIsn't there a concern that this will desensitise them to humans, or is it just assumed that it'll happen anyway because of all the tourists?
- Athas 9y agoBeing desensitised to humans is not necessarily a problem. The problems occur if humans are seen as threats (which they probably will if they are unused to humans), or more importantly, if humans are seen as a food source. That's when things easily become dangerous. As long as the bear managers don't bring snacks to their meetings, it should be OK.
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- stinos 9y agoInteresting, had no idea. And why exactly do they do all this? To make them less wild, less dangerous for visitors? Has there ever been any protests against it from e.g. nature groups?
- jlj 9y agoThat post is sarcasm. Wildlife managers want to teach bears that humans are not a food source and should be avoided. Otherwise the bears can get aggressive and may even have to be killed. It's as much or more about managing human behavior as it is bear behavior. Good read: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/bears/humanbearinteractions.htm https://www.nps.gov/subjects/bears/humanbearinteractions.htm
- emiliobumachar 9y agoVery good read indeed. Some key quotes: "managers strive to prevent bears from learning to associate people and human spaces with food by providing bear-resistant food storage and garbage receptacles and enforcing their use." "[...] managers may use techniques called aversive conditioning to teach bears that human spaces are unpleasant. This can include noisemakers, shooting them with beanbags, or capturing and releasing them." This is also very good: http://theoatmeal.com/blog/bears http://theoatmeal.com/blog/bears " If they have to enter the pen of a captured animal, such as a bear, they wear a bear-urine-scented bear costume. The point of all this is to disassociate themselves as a source of food or care for the animals. Once released, they want these wild animals to avoid people as much as possible. "
- pferde 9y agoWow, I was under impression that a mama bear is quite protective of its cubs. How do they get near without getting attacked and driven away?
- avn2109 9y ago>> "How do they get near without getting attacked and driven away?" The National Park service usually assigns the bear manager a herd of Jackalope when camping with the bears. These Jackalopes distract the bears from the presence of the humans. While this approach is very effective in National Parks such as Yellowstone, problems have recently arisen in other Grizzly-inhabited areas, notably near the Bob Marshall and Scapegoat wildernesses, due to declining Jackalope populations. Efforts are underway to replace the Jackalope herds with a single baby moose, or in some cases as many as three baby meese, but I can't vouch for the efficacy of this technique.
- duiker101 9y agoYou seem to be gitting a lot of downvotes but no response about why. Is this not true or what?
- cmurf 9y agoA couple of years ago, some dumbass family of tourists in Eagle Colorado were feeding bears hamburgers from a local Burger King. http://www.coloradoindependent.com/92882/dumpster-diving-burger-king-bears-hand-fed-by-extraordinarily-stupid-people-in-eagle http://www.coloradoindependent.com/92882/dumpster-diving-bur... Extraordinarily stupid is kind. This behavior is what gets bears killed. I'm glad I was not there, or I'd have used the bear spray in my car on this stupid family, which yes is assault so I'd have properly been put in jail. But just, incredibly stupid people who have no concept of nature and don't care to have one, so I like the imagination of spraying this stupid family with pepper spray.
- fasteddie 9y agoYes but they always have to push back the 1:1s
- microtherion 9y agoThey make sure the bears use the right TPS cover sheet.
- jlj 9y agohttps://www.nps.gov/subjects/bears/humanbearinteractions.htm https://www.nps.gov/subjects/bears/humanbearinteractions.htm
- d-sc 9y agoAssuming you are not being sarcastic-there are no meetings. What I have seen is that they do extensive studies to observe how the Bears exist in their natural habit and implement policies to keep these behaviors in place. Everything from making sure highway construction noise levels don't interfere with hunting patterns to removing problem bears when they display aggression towards humans.
- cushychicken 9y agoCurious who your landlord is - I know a lot of people in Bozeman, MT who work for Fish and Game, and that might be someone I know!