Latest news with #KerryGunther
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Yahoo
Grizzly killed in Yellowstone after seeking food, flipping dumpsters
A 400-pound grizzly bear was trapped and killed by park staff in Yellowstone last week because it posed a risk to public safety in one of the Wyoming park's busiest areas, according to the National Park Service. The bear, an 11-year-old male grizzly, overturned bear-resistant dumpsters — some weighing 800 pounds — and pulled trash cans from their concrete bases in search of human garbage. It was able to access food and trash near Old Faithful, as well as near the Nez Perce Picnic Area and the Midway Geyser Basin parking lot, park officials said. "It's unfortunate that this bear began regularly seeking out garbage and was able to defeat the park's bear-resistant infrastructure," Kerry Gunther, Yellowstone bear management biologist, said. "We go to great lengths to protect bears and prevent them from becoming conditioned to human food. But occasionally, a bear outsmarts us or overcomes our defenses. When that happens, we sometimes have to remove the bear from the population to protect visitors and property." The park noted that Yellowstone provides "bear-resistant" food storage lockers at all campgrounds, as well as food storage devices at backcountry campsites, and "bear-resistant dumpsters and garbage cans." Officials also said the last time a bear was killed by park staff in "a management action" was in 2017, when it "removed" a grizzly bear after it damaged tents and got access to food at Heart Lake campsites. In 2023, another grizzly in the region was killed, after fatally mauling a woman on a forest trail west of Yellowstone and attacking a person in Idaho three years before that. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks shot that bear, a 10-year-old female grizzly, with approval from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Grizzly bears are protected in the U.S. as a threatened species and it is illegal to harm or kill them except in cases of self-defense or the defense of others, according to the fish and wildlife service. The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, with Yellowstone National Park at its core, has been identified by the government agency as a "recovery zone" for grizzly populations. Raw Video: Mexican navy training ship hits Brooklyn Bridge Italy's Trulli: From Past to Present Car bomb outside Palm Springs fertility clinic was act of terrorism, officials say
CBS News
19-05-2025
- General
- CBS News
400-pound grizzly trapped and killed in Yellowstone after seeking food and flipping bear-resistant dumpsters
A 400-pound grizzly bear was trapped and killed by park staff in Yellowstone last week because it posed a risk to public safety in one of the Wyoming park's busiest areas, according to the National Park Service. The bear, an 11-year-old male grizzly, overturned bear-resistant dumpsters — some weighing 800 pounds — and pulled trash cans from their concrete bases in search of human garbage. It was able to access food and trash near Old Faithful, as well as near the Nez Perce Picnic Area and the Midway Geyser Basin parking lot, park officials said. "It's unfortunate that this bear began regularly seeking out garbage and was able to defeat the park's bear-resistant infrastructure," Kerry Gunther, Yellowstone bear management biologist, said. "We go to great lengths to protect bears and prevent them from becoming conditioned to human food. But occasionally, a bear outsmarts us or overcomes our defenses. When that happens, we sometimes have to remove the bear from the population to protect visitors and property." The park noted that Yellowstone provides "bear-resistant" food storage lockers at all campgrounds, as well as food storage devices at backcountry campsites, and "bear-resistant dumpsters and garbage cans." This photo from the National Park Service shows a bear-resistant dumpster that was flipped over in Nez Perce Picnic Area in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. National Park Service/Allan Barker Officials also said the last time a bear was killed by park staff in "a management action" was in 2017, when it "removed" a grizzly bear after it damaged tents and got access to food at Heart Lake campsites. In 2023, another grizzly in the region was killed, after fatally mauling a woman on a forest trail west of Yellowstone and attacking a person in Idaho three years before that. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks shot that bear, a 10-year-old female grizzly, with approval from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Grizzly bears are protected in the U.S. as a threatened species and it is illegal to harm or kill them except in cases of self-defense or the defense of others, according to the fish and wildlife service. The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, with Yellowstone National Park at its core, has been identified by the government agency as a "recovery zone" for grizzly populations.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Yellowstone Officials Kill Grizzly Bear That Was Flipping Over 800-Pound Dumpsters
Officials at Yellowstone National Park haven't had to kill a grizzly bear inside the park since 2017. That changed Wednesday, when they trapped and euthanized a 400-pound grizzly that had become food-conditioned and was a risk to public safety. In a press release, NPS officials explained that the 11-year-old male bear had become notorious for seeking out human food by flipping over dumpsters and uprooting trash cans. They say this happened multiple times this spring at several sites, including the park's most well-known location, Old Faithful. 'In addition to developing a strategy to flip over 800-pound dumpsters,' officials wrote in the press release, 'the bear also uprooted smaller bear-resistant trash cans from their concrete bases to gain access to human food and garbage.' Yellowstone is world-famous for its grizzlies, and officials there try to keep close track of the bears. Park officials documented the first bear coming out of hibernation on March 9, and they started tracking the male bear's problematic behavior less than a month later, on April 3. Between that date and May 13, the 11-year-old grizzly stole garbage on several occasions from receptacles at Old Faithful and other parking lots and picnic areas. Major entrances to the park, including the North Entrance and the more popular West Entrance, opened to vehicle traffic April 18. Officials say with tourists present, the bear had gotten too clever for its own good and was a threat to public safety. 'It's unfortunate that this bear began regularly seeking out garbage and was able to defeat the park's bear-resistant infrastructure,' Kerry Gunther, the park's bear management biologist, said in the press release. 'We go to great lengths to protect bears and prevent them from becoming conditioned to human food. But occasionally, a bear outsmarts us or overcomes our defenses. When that happens, we sometimes have to remove the bear from the population to protect visitors and property.' Although the saying among wildlife managers today is that 'a fed bear is a dead bear,' it was actually commonplace to feed Yellowstone grizzlies garbage and other human food until the 1970s, according to the NPS. Old black-and-white footage shows bleachers that were set up around garbage pits, where nightly bear viewings occurred. These were popular tourist attractions, and it took years for officials to close the pits for the sake of humans and the bears. (During the 10 years leading up to their removal, the park says it was recording around 45 bear-caused human injuries a year.) Read Next: Grizzlies were also granted federal protection under the Endangered Species Act around this time, in 1975. They remain on the ESA list even though their population in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem has grown from less than 200 in the 1980s to more than 1,000 today. Citing those numbers, many Western lawmakers are pushing for the bears to be delisted. A public comment period regarding a new federal management proposal for grizzly bears ends Friday.
USA Today
16-05-2025
- General
- USA Today
Yellowstone grizzly killed by rangers after learning to open trash cans
Yellowstone grizzly killed by rangers after learning to open trash cans Adult bears cannot be relocated, so this 800-pound adult male had to be euthanized to protect the public, rangers said. Show Caption Hide Caption 5-year-old grizzly bear found dead in Grand Teton National Park A 5-year-old grizzly bear known as Grizzly 1058, the son of the world-famous Grizzly 399, has been found dead in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park. unbranded - Newsworthy An adult grizzly bear that figured out how to flip 800-pound garbage Dumpsters and other trash cans to find food inside has been euthanized by Yellowstone National Park rangers. Rangers said the 11-year-old male bear posed a safety risk to park visitors and other bears after overturning trash containers in the Old Faithful area of the park. Rangers very rarely have to take such drastic action, and said this was the first time since 2017 they'd had to trap and kill a grizzly for safety reasons. 'The decision to kill the bear was made to ensure public safety and reduce the chances of other bears becoming habituated to human food,' rangers said in a statement. Wildlife experts typically use non-lethal methods for keeping grizzlies and other wildlife away from people and trash, including noisemakers or even pepper spray. Trapping and killing a bear like this is considered a last resort, and while cubs can sometimes be moved or rehomed at a zoo or sanctuary, an adult male like this one was not a good candidate, rangers said. Like many places in the West where bears live, Yellowstone requires the use of bear-resistant trash containers. But those devices are not always 100% effective, rangers said. The bear was euthanized May 14. 'It's unfortunate that this bear began regularly seeking out garbage and was able to defeat the park's bear-resistant infrastructure,' Yellowstone bear management biologist Kerry Gunther said in a statement. 'We go to great lengths to protect bears and prevent them from becoming conditioned to human food. But occasionally, a bear outsmarts us or overcomes our defenses. When that happens, we sometimes have to remove the bear from the population to protect visitors and property.' Tourists crashing their cars into bears are among the leading cause of non-natural bear deaths in national parks, according to the National Park Service, one of the reasons rangers so strictly enforce speed limits within park boundaries.
