3.5 million people visit Yellowstone each year. What’s mind boggling to me is how few encounters there actually are. Maybe it’s time to consider how many people can visit Yellowstone. They say the victim was an “veteran hiker” but was alone with no bear spray.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/08/09/grizzly-kills-veteran-hiker-in-yellowstone-national-park-authorities-say/
Brooks Fahy
Executive Director
PREDATOR DEFENSE
Helping people & wildlife coexist since 1990
www.predatordefense.org
Exposing the Big Game 
Hiking in grizzly country is inherently risky and most hikers knowingly take that risk. Hiking in the wilderness is also encroachment and when a human surprises a grizzly and her cub it is encroachment. The bears were probably behaving normally even in the killing and caching. The “experienced” hiker had no bear spray, was hiking alone, and was assuming inherent risks, and encroaching. Should the “guilty” bear’s) be killed? In my view, no. Park officials may be in CYA mode and that is understandable, but defensible? Bears mostly deserve a “humanitarian” award for tolerating the millions who visit the Park yet have injured only 47 and killed only 7 in the Park’s history. Unfortunate tragedy for the man and the bear (s).
It is also possible the hiker harassed the bear or the bear felt it’s cub was threatened
I don’t think CYA mode is understandable, but cowardly and outdated. How dare this poor bear family approach the gods is what it says to me. It is a tragedy, but this man was not a park visitor, but a 5-year seasonal employee who should have known better. This really stinks, and I won’t visit Yellowstone again if it is being turned into a people-only REI Disneyland.
The other thing is that the park is going to close in a few weeks. Nobody is going to be at risk. But an animal has to ‘pay’ I guess for messing with a human. It’s sad that his lack of foresight caused all of this trouble. I just read that they got the poor cub today. What a fkn mess. I’m disgusted.
Hence the quote about humans being “evil pests.”
My heart breaks.
Humans encroach.
Humans are the greedy interlopers.
Humans are the arrogant speciesists, the animals murders, the users and abusers.
And yet the precious beautiful “I am minding my own business” animal treasures pay with their lives after doing only what instinct told them to save their lives and their cubs.
I truly loathe (most) humans and their attitudes towards non-human sentient beings and the “raping” of our planet.
And even though I am only one person, as a cruelty-free, dog rescuing, spay and neutering, spread awareness re: animals on Twitter etc vegan, I do as little harm as possible.
My heart still bleeds, but I know I contribute to saving a sweet beating heart every now and then. As far as these bear treasures’ impending murders as justification for human trespassing and on-going animal cruelty and entitlement towards innocent animals by ignorant hubris-laden humans, the karma truck will show no mercy.
I have to believe that so that I am able to see through my tears.
I agree , the bear was just protecting her cubs..any animal has that instinct. The hicker was invading his home….why is it so hard to understand…he knew what he was getting into….we are humans we understand….how can you blame a wild animal nursing her cubs.
As long as the human population keeps growing and we allow people to “share” the wilderness with animals, this will happen. I’m dubious about whether the bear that is eventually killed will be the right one or just an assurance that some bear, a bear, paid the ultimate price and that the park is safe for more hikers. Of course, the cubs’ chance of survival is dim too. Is there a method to the park department’s madness? After all, if one hiker dies (yes, it is too bad) and three bears die, then as the human population increases, we can decrease the bear population and reduce risk. There is one female who will bear no more cubs and two cubs who will probably never grow up to have their own.
The hiker did not have any spray. Really? Of course he had it (irony); it is the rule. I shouldn’t get going on this, but I will. I have been around Yellowstone and Glacier and have been rendered speechless, even for me, at the extent of the human stupidity I saw! There are signs everywhere warning of the danger of approaching wildlife. What about the word “wild” do people not get? The rangers on the scene also issued warnings. But some people insisted on ignoring it all. I saw one guy try to cozy up to a bear, who was just minding his own business and wasn’t interested in participating in a photo session. The guy crept up next to him, and the bear. with one swipe, sent the intruder flying end-over-end down an embankment. He lived and thus the bear did too. One can see the same thing with bison. People creeping up on them, the bison obviously getting edgy, then maybe a charge with the expected consequences. For those who recommend “education” as the answer to many of our problems, they should go to the parks and see how much good education does. It was as effective as telling people not to drink and drive.
My wish, which I’m sure will go unfulfilled, is that we have large areas of wilderness with no human intrusion. No hiking, no hunting, no trapping, no logging, no mining, no snowmobiles, no all-terrain vehicles, no dirt bikes, no restaurants, etc. Just the animals living out their lives without interference. the way they were meant to do. However, with the old ideology that everything must somehow benefit human beings or be a resource, that is probably a dream.
Can we really accept the so-called “evidence” that this mother bear killed this human? I, for one, always take with a grain of salt what these agencies report, along with the so-called “news reports.” Pure conjecture at this point. One careless human killed, but how millions of wildlife, including bears, are slaughtered every year by trophy hunters (just like Dentist Palmer)– and because of stupid humans in National Parks, harassing, encroaching upon wild habitat. When I visited Yellowstone in early spring, I was appalled by how many ignorant humans were out and about the Lamar Valley getting way to close to Elk, Bison, and yes, even Grizzly (who had just come out of hibernation with cubs, looking for food). One poor mother was waiting in the river alongside a road, trying to cross with her cubs. We did not get out of the car, slowly driving on. Scores of silly humans with their cameras were alongside the river, making that poor mother very nervous. These people refused to follow the rangers’ advice. The Park Service should have arrested those people. Sadly, as John Livingston also says, there is no peace or justice for wild animals, not with humans’ general attitudes about wildlife, as “dangerous, unpredictable, commodities, and in need of management.” That is Homo sapiens fatal flaw, among others.
Exactly the same things I saw in Yellowstone and Glacier! Many Darwin awards in the making. I’ve been reading the comments in stories about this incident, and so far most of the ones I’ve read are coming down on the side of the bear. At least some people are agreeing with John Livingston that wild animals get no justice in a world run by and for humans. I’m hoping that Cecil and this bear and her cubs will be a part of a growing peace and justice movement that will eventually consider all non-human animals on this earth.
I agree, ahimsa.
Right, one of many.
What can we expect from a park that has “For the People” on it’s main gate in Gardener? You can’t get much more human-arrogant than that!
VERY WELL SAID…
The idea that this was a case of a lone hiker without bear spray appears to be pure speculation. If this were on a TV program like CSI, critics would reject the absence of a plausible case. Here is the Reuters report:
>An autopsy on the hiker, Lance Crosby, 63, who was in his fifth season working for a firm that operates urgent-care clinics in Yellowstone, was planned Monday to determine the cause of his death, park Superintendent Dan Wenk said.
>Crosby, who was from Montana, was reported missing after failing to show up for work Friday morning and later that day a ranger found his body in a popular back-country area off a trail near Yellowstone Lake. Tracks at the site indicated a grizzly sow and at least one cub were likely involved in an attack that caused defensive injuries to Crosby’s forearms, Wenk said.
http://news.yahoo.com/grizzly-suspected-death-yellowstone-hiker-trapped-may-killed-174851627.html
If he’d fallen off a cliff, would they level the mountain? Or drain a river because someone drowned? So why kill the bear?
Imagine if we treated humans the same way: you’re suspected so I kill you and your children.
Horrific, isn’t it? So why it’s legal and “normal” to kill Grizzly Bears?
It’s only “normal” to abnormal people who think humans are all that matters; unfortunately, they’re the majority right now.
Fucking Yellowstone hiker please stay home, idiot, and hik the walls as sport. Let the bears alone to live their lives in peace in their mountain teritory!
Save the bears and cubs !!!!!
THIS IS SUCH BULLSHIT. LEAVE THE BEAR ALONE!!!! THE BEAR IS IN ITS HOME. THE HIKER WAS IN THE BEARS HOME. LEAVE THE BEAR ALONE. HOW DARE YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST KILL. WHAT OR WHO GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO KILL???
Leave the bears alone..they see enough destruction of their kind to have good reason to kill every human they encounter..but they mainly stay well away…it was an accident…
like us animals want to live in peace with their families…leave them be.
what a shocking attitude to want to kill her for protecting her cubs..now you want to let another Palmer loose to not only take her out but her innocent cubs too!
Well done man !!!!
It is ok for a human to kill an innocent animal but we have to murder animals who kill people encrouching on their habitat!
Sort of a narcissistic viewpoint. Dont ya think?!!
If humans were half as civilized as animals we would be living in a mich better world!
Sickening.
Extremely Narcissistic!
I’m absolutely disgusted America would let this happen, if you carelessly blunder into any Momma animals area she will kill to protect her cubs, she’s not likely to go on a murderous rampage in the nearest city though!
She was protecting her young, aren’t guns leg for protection and would a man who killed an intruder to protect his family, be killed and his chdren also. If you don’t want it to happen again, stay out of their habitat.
What part of wild animals do you not understand ?? You won’t be satisfied till people like you have enialated every animal on this planet , they have a right to live and who are you to say who are what gets put to sleep disgusting you make me sick !!!
Do not kill the DAMN BEAR. The hiker is to blame…shame on all of you…take them to a sanctuary than…..
No hiking in Yellowstone then. Do not kill the bear, it was protecting her babies!!! Men are greedy men are the real threat. Why go into their territory?
Leave the bears alone! What do you achieve by this. Revenge? Men pls use your brains if you have any at all!!
Killing the bear for acting like a bear in bear country is so wrong and i’ll bet the dead hiker would never want the bear killed. People need to remember the bears in the wild are not Yogi nor would we want them to be.