Bears in Summer School

by Mark Grossi
The Fresno Bee - August 4, 2001

For the first time in Yosemite National Park history, authorities have closed a campground to open summer school for three black bear cubs.

The lesson at deserted Rancheria Falls campground: Lose your taste for campers' food and start digging up ants, berries and assorted other natural goodies.

Park officials, who have closed campgrounds for floods and fires but never for pesky bears, say they want to save the lives of the cubs. One day the youngsters might have to be destroyed if they become aggressive in their pursuit of human food.

"We're shooting nonlethal projectiles like rubber bullets and beanbag rounds at the mother bear to haze her and the cubs away," said park wildlife biologist Kate McCurdy. "We're hoping they will stay away from people and forage for natural food."

The cubs' 180-pound mother has been grabbing food in the campground at Hetch Hetchy Reservoir since the 1980s, and she is teaching her cubs to do the same thing. There may not be much hope of retraining the mother, who was first captured and ear-tagged in 1985.

But diverting the cubs from a life of food theft has been a main objective since the campground was closed June 26.

The closure is part of a campaign that has dramatically reduced bear-human conflicts at Yosemite, where thieving bears are as much a part of the experience as majestic granite cliffs.

Between 1998 and 2000, Yosemite bear incidents dropped almost 60%, from 1,590 to 654. So far this year, there have been only 79 incidents, though August is often a busy month for bears. Property damage has plummeted from $659,009 in 1998 to $20,334 so far this year.

The success of the bear campaign comes as a result of intense public education, additional bear-proof food lockers and bear-proof food canisters.

Warning signs about bears and food greet people in campgrounds, visitor
centers and bathrooms.

Bears get this kind of attention at Yosemite. Officials are charged with the dual mission of protecting the bears and protecting people and their right to see these natural wonders. It's a highly emotional subject.

Park officials say they have noticed a difference since 1998. "There was a time in 1998 that I was out with a television filming crew at night, and there must have been six bears in one parking lot," said Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman. "Now I hear people asking, 'Where are the bears?' "

But bear problems loom at Yosemite like El Capitan. In June, a female black bear was chased during a campground food raid. She climbed a tree to avoid capture in the middle of busy Yosemite Valley, swaying in a tree for almost two days.

The bear, which had a history of food thievery, had become aggressive toward people and had been teaching her two cubs the behavior. Authorities were forced to destroy her and take her cubs to be retrained. Visitors and animal lovers were outraged, telling Yosemite officials they thought the killing was unnecessary.

Authorities said they had to choose between the safety of humans and the life of the bear. But, because the incident was seen by so many people, Yosemite bears were again in the headlines.

Days later, officials decided on the unprecedented closure of the Rancheria Falls campground at Hetch Hetchy for the three cubs and their mother. It appeared that officials were trying to make amends for killing the sow in Yosemite Valley, but Gediman said the two events were not connected.

"One has nothing to do with the other," Gediman said. "We started this hazing program last year. Hetch Hetchy is a different situation than Yosemite Valley."

Hetch Hetchy Reservoir on the Tuolumne River is far from the crowds of the valley.

Wildlife biologist McCurdy said visitors need to hike six miles to the campground, which is between 4,600 and 4,800 feet in elevation. It is not crowded in July and August because it is usually quite warm. Yosemite Valley, on the other hand, sometimes has thousands of people in a single day.

Bear experts at Yosemite happened upon the sow almost by accident last year. The workers were taking down old bear cables -- strung between two trees like a clothesline for campers to hang food.

"We weren't intending to capture any bears, but every half-hour on the first night, this bear would come through and roll our packs looking for food," she said. "We finally decided to capture her and check out her history."

They found a very old tag, dating back to 1985, in the bear's ear. Records show biologists decided her age was 3 at that point. A conspicuous new tag was put on her ear, and she was turned loose.

This year, people started calling about a problem bear -- a bear easily identified because of a large, new tag on her ear.

"We got reports of bluff charging," McCurdy said. "If people got between the mother bear and the cubs, there could be a problem."

The park's Bear Council -- representatives of Yosemite's management staff, the concessionaire, the Yosemite Association and others -- decided to close the campground for the rest of the season and haze the animals at every opportunity.

McCurdy said the rubber bullets and other projectiles only cause bruises, and workers aim only at the mother bear's backside. Nobody shoots at the cubs, but they get the message when they see their mother run away.

The hazing and campground closures have been commonly used for years at Glacier, Yellowstone and other national parks. Until Yosemite's bear campaign got into full swing, the park didn't have enough staff members to continually haze a bear for weeks.

Other forms of hazing are done in national parks. Leigh Stansfield, a bear management staffer at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, said she uses slingshots and pepper spray. Sometimes, she will wear night-vision goggles to spot a bear in a tree next to a campground.

"We hop out of a vehicle and run right after them," she said. "We don't want visitors to do that because they aren't trained to do it. We tell people to bang pots and stand together in a group and yell. If a bear gets your food, though, we tell people to stop hazing it because it might become aggressive."

Bears hunt for human food because they've learned that it fills them up faster than ants, herbs and other food found in the wild.

But at Yosemite's Rancheria Falls campground, the smorgasbord of camper food has disappeared with the campers.

While the mother bear and her three cubs much prefer the human food when they can get it, "they're not going to starve," McCurdy said. "This is prime bear habitat all around this area. There's a lot of natural food."