Project overview: Support park scientists in establishing a new, cutting-edge AI model to help predict when, where, and to what extent black bears in Yosemite come in contact with and consume human food.

How your support helps: Over the past 25+ years, Yosemite’s Human-Bear Management Program has made enormous strides in protecting bears and humans from one another. The most notable change? Inspiring human visitors to be mindful of their impact on bears — encouraging proper food storage, distancing from bears, and safe driving. 

While these efforts have significantly decreased the number of incidents between human visitors and bears, park managers are unable to determine when, where, and to what extent Yosemite’s bears are still obtaining human food. Furthering research on this missing piece of the puzzle — current bear food habits — will allow the Human-Bear Management Program team to develop new outreach and management initiatives that directly address the most pressing human-bear conflicts in the park today. 

To do so, bear hair and bone samples will be analyzed to identify individuals with a high proportion of human food in their diets. Simultaneously, GPS collars will be used to track bear movement and spatial patterns within the park. And, using both hair/bone and GPS data, scientists will build AI models to understand which human areas bears visit frequently and determine the likelihood that a black bear in Yosemite will encounter and consume human food. 

This year: In 2026, an expert team — including park staff and university professors from around the nation — will create an AI model that can predict the most likely locations and seasons for when bears will attempt to eat human food. The model will be built from spatial GPS collar data that can quantify seasonal habitat use, and hair/bone samples that can identify the diet of individual bears. This new, cutting-edge approach will analyze bear movements with GPS data, along with natural versus human diet to spotlight just how far the Human-Bear Management Program has come in mitigating bear incidents, and how much farther we can go in protecting bears and educating people.

Project partner: Yosemite National Park