Don't Shoot The Bears!

[raydm6]

A mother bear rushed a woman snapping a photo of her cubs. Now, the parkgoer is facing federal charges.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a...parkgoer-is-facing-federal-charges/ar-AAMJHgf

 

[Beemermark]

People see animals on TV and think wild animals (even domesticated animals) are just like Yogi Bear in the cartoons. My daughter was a NPS Range for years and the number of people injured by this type of behavior is incredible. Bison gore people is also pretty common.

 

[Horatio]

People are stupid. Wild animals are dangerous, not like those in a petting zoo, especially a mama bear with cubs! My sister tried to "pet" a caged black bear when she was three. My parents had enough sense to yank her away from the cage. The bear may have been "tame", but why risk it?

 

[charjohncarter]

Yes, people are stupid. But this federal charge reminds of 'Girls Gone Wild' except it is government gone wild.

 

[Corran]

My wife and I, when we were first dating, went on a roadtrip that included a day in the Smokies. On the famous Cades Cove loop, minutes after driving into the cove, a little bear cub suddenly appeared next to the car, practically leaning into the window (our windows were open, enjoying the early-morning air). He was peering at my wife in the passenger seat. We were so surprised that we just froze, and then I went to grab my camera and the bear jumped out of the tree and rushed into the neighboring field.

We parked the car and got out and watched him run through the field. Suddenly behind us was a huge rustling - something big was coming out of the forest. I thought for a second we were about to be confronted by the cub's mother, but it was a person! They were toting a DSLR and a big lens, and looked at us quizzically, asking us where the bear went!

They are lucky they didn't get attacked themselves! Rangers up at the entrance told us to obviously not get between a bear and its mother. I had little interest in the bears - I was just starting to shoot 4x5 and was taking photographs of the landscape. Later, as I was setting up my big Toyo, we had car after car ask us if there was a bear in the tree? It was really annoying, and to the last person that asked me as I was packing up, I said - "look carefully and you can see a really rare toucan in the tree!" We drove away laughing as the whole family in a van rushed to pull off the side of the road and look in the tree I had just shot a picture of, searching for the "toucan."

 

[Tim Murphy]

I disagree completely with this quote

I disagree completely with this quote

Yes, people are stupid. But this federal charge reminds of 'Girls Gone Wild' except it is government gone wild.

Dear John,

People need to learn that their actions have consequences. The woman in the video was absolutely clueless, and her being criminally charged and fined will hopefully convince some other equally clueless person to act with greater respect towards wildlife.

As a side note. Had the bear attacked the woman, do you care to wager as to how that would have turned out for the bear?

I'm all for people being outside, but if they lack sense and awareness they need to stay well back. Shooting a video of a grizzly with your phone while standing out in the open is a stupid idea.

Regards,

Tim Murphy

Harrisburg, PA

 

[charjohncarter]

Dear John,

People need to learn that their actions have consequences. The woman in the video was absolutely clueless, and her being criminally charged and fined will hopefully convince some other equally clueless person to act with greater respect towards wildlife.

As a side note. Had the bear attacked the woman, do you care to wager as to how that would have turned out for the bear?

I'm all for people being outside, but if they lack sense and awareness they need to stay well back. Shooting a video of a grizzly with your phone while standing out in the open is a stupid idea.

Regards,

Tim Murphy

Harrisburg, PA

I think a citation is more 'the penalty fits the crime.' And why isn't the guy taking the video facing a similar charge plus they both were in the parking lot set aside for the public. Maybe the answer is the build a wall around the parking lot like they did on the grounds of congress.

 

[Larry Cloetta]

I’m up in Yellowstone all the time. The only thing I found the least bit out of the ordinary about that video, my first thought on watching, before I read the accompanying story, was how unusual it was that she was alone, that there were not at least 20 or 30 people, or more standing next to her doing exactly the same thing.
It’s easy to apply the word “stupid” to her, and maybe she is, but I can promise you that there will have been hundreds of people with Master’s degrees in the park every year doing more or less the same exact thing. Maybe they’re stupid as well, though they don’t think so. Probably better to just say that people who live in other areas of the country, no matter who they are, don’t quite have a working understanding of how the whole wild animal thing works. That would be ignorance , which I’ve seen applies equally well to the intelligent and the stupid. Or, foolish, that works also.
I’m ambivalent about her being prosecuted, only because, for that behavior, that’s a highly unusual application of existing law, unequal application of the law in the extreme. People do this all the time; I’ve seen much worse many, many times, in the presence of rangers, and never seen anyone get charged. Charged by a bison, yes, but not criminally. I’m not saying she shouldn’t be, but it’s highly unusual for one person to get singled out for behavior which is more anodyne than most of what you can see any day in the park. Anytime there are bears that close to the road, within two minutes you would have 30 or more people gathered, within 15 minutes there would be a couple hundred or more, all “aggravating” the bear as much, or more, than she was. When rangers show up they will try to take control of the situation by moving crowds back as much as they can, though people don’t always listen. I’ve seen people scolded and admonished for doing more than this lady is shown doing, but never seen anyone cited. It’s just too common.
Maybe there was worse than is shown in the video, or maybe her mistake was in posting the videos, but there is way, way worse up there every single day than this, committed by scores of people, so it’s odd that she’s the one getting nailed for it.

 

[Larry Cloetta]

And that’s a real half hearted charge from that bear, she’s not really into it. It’s a bluff charge, and not a very sincere one at that. That bear isn’t even particularly agitated.