Grizzly bear on picnic table in Many Glacier Campground, Glacier National Park/NPS HO
A grizzly bear that entered the Many Glacier Campground at Glacier National Park and snatched some trout away from campers has prompted a temporary ban on tents and soft-sided campers in the campground.
The bear, estimated to weigh about 150 pounds, roamed into the campground Friday morning and approached a picnic table where two campers were cleaning two brook trout they had caught.
"One of the campers sprayed the bear with bear spray from a distance of 15 feet. The spray was unsuccessful in deterring the bear’s approach, and it proceeded to climb on top of the picnic table and consume the fish. It also sniffed, pawed, and bit two nearby backpacks," park spokeswoman Lauren Alley said in a release. "Park rangers responded and used hazing techniques to encourage the bear to move out of the campground. Prior to its departure, it dug into two fire pits, sniffed picnic tables, a tent, and an RV with visitors inside."
Rangers were going to try to trap the grizzly bear for further management action.
"The bear exhibits numerous signs of food-conditioning and meets the definition of a conditioned bear in Glacier National Park’s Bear Management Guidelines," said Ms. Alley. "A non-conditioned bear would typically not enter a campsite with people present and resist human attempts to scare it away. Conditioned bears are usually removed from the population by being placed in zoos or euthanized.
"Once bears have successfully obtained unnatural food from people or become accustomed to foraging in developed areas, it is very difficult to change their behavior to return to wild areas and natural food sources," she added. "Once they have received a human food reward, they often become a safety hazard as they become increasingly aggressive seeking out and obtaining subsequent food rewards. In 1976, a conditioned grizzly bear dragged a camper from her tent in the Many Glacier Campground and killed her."
The current ban against tents and soft-sided campers in the campground does not include camper vehicles such as VW buses and pickup trucks with small canvas pop-ups as long as the canvas is not exposed.
Glacier National Park has a proactive bear management program that seeks to prevent conditioning through public education, bear-wise waste management, aggressive enforcement of food storage regulations, and application of hazing and aversive conditioning techniques to teach bears to avoid humans and developed areas.
Comments
I was there. The bear was not aggressive. Bears eat fish. The park is going to kill this bear. The camper is at fault. This is not a "food conditioned bear" bears eat fish!!!
"bears eat fish"
So do people, why do you say the camper is at fault?
Some might say they shouldn't have been cleaning the fish at their picnic table.
bears eat fish, don't kill the bear!
its true that bears eat fish. In hindsight. Cleaning the fish at the picnic table was not a good idea. That bear should have been more easy to scare off with bear spray and people probably yelling at it. It was. Clearly looking for people food as it went after backpacks. I hate the the bear is now to blame and will pay the price.
That doesn't sound unreasonable. It's a campground and there are many people preparing all sorts of food at picnic tables. As long as it's not simply left there, usually bears won't simply try to take over, but this one seems to be bold, It wasn't a typical sneak attack but rather the bear forcing the campers to move. I mean - the report is that it didn't even get deterred by bear spray.
Bears eat fish from rivers not from campground picnic tables.
"Some might say they shouldn't have been cleaning the fish at their picnic table"
That was one of my first thoughts too but I'm not sure there is a difference between fish guts & fish fillets (or bacon frying for that matter). I think the reason most people clean fish away from camp is so as not to have the guts laying around afterwards but it would be interesting to know if bears are more attracted to the smell of entrails then the meat.