Thursday, August 10, 2006

IF IT'S TOURIST SEASON WHY CAN'T WE SHOOT THEM?


Steve took this picture last week at one of the campsites here at the park. With all the signs, and all the verbal cautions, they're still doing it.

A beautiful bear lost its life last month because it was availing itself to the food left out by stupid campers. Some people called the bear "stubborn" and "dangerous" and "persistent" but all it was doing was making use of a consistent food source. Officials tried to take her away several times but she returned each time -- and why not? Relocated miles away, she had to forage for wild food; back in her familiar territory, she had a plentiful source of very attractive human food for herself and her cubs.

Like Rachel commented .... In so many human vs. animal situations, it's not the animals, it's the humans. The animals are behaving normally, looking out for themselves and their young. The humans are just being stupid.

1 comment:

Downhillnut said...

We just got back from a week of tenting and I'm saddened to see this. Sure, folks go camping to relax, but it doesn't take much time from the day to tidy up.

We weren't in bear country so didn't have to worry about that, but all the same, we deliberately didn't leave food or garbage out to encourage smaller ravenous mammals, either. All of our food stayed in our cars, which we kept well shaded, and the garbage got emptied frequently.