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MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS, Wyoming – Officials in Yellowstone National Park trapped and killed a male grizzly Wednesday after it was spotted in developed areas of the park.
A news release from the National Park Service Thursday afternoon says the 11-year-old, 400-pound bear tipped over several dumpsters and took food and trash near Old Faithful, the Nez Perce picnic area and the Midway Geyser parking lot. It happened multiple times between April 3 and May 13.
"In addition to developing a strategy to flip over 800-pound dumpsters, the bear also uprooted smaller bear-resistant trash cans from their concrete bases," the news release says.
The bear was put down because he posed a risk to public safety. Officials also wanted to reduce the chances of other bears becoming habituated to human food.
"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 says in a news 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."
Yellowstone's bear management plan mandates the park provide bear-resistant food storage lockers in all campgrounds, food storage devices in all backcountry campsites and bear-resistant garbage cans and dumpsters. Park officials say bear safety measures are crucial in ensuring public safety and preventing wildlife from developing dangerous habits.
This is the first time park officials have killed a grizzly bear in Yellowstone since 2017. At that time, they removed a bear from backcountry campsite at Heart Lake who was damaging tents and eating human food.
