According to a Wednesday press release from the park, the 11-year-old, male grizzly bear, estimated to weigh 400 pounds, had repeatedly sought out food sources near Old Faithful, the Nez Perce Picnic Area and the Midway Geyser Basin parking lot.
The griz developed a strategy to flip over 800-pound dumpsters, uprooted small bear-resistant trash cans from their concrete bases and “became increasingly food-conditioned,” which wildlife managers decided posed a safety risk in such a busy area fo the park. The decisions to euthanize the animal was made to ensure public safety and 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 said in a 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.”
The last grizzly bear killed in a management action in Yellowstone was in the fall of 2017, when park officials removed a griz that was damaging tents and accessing human food in backcountry campsites near Heart lake.
Read the full report at UtahNewsDispatch.com.
