Your thoughts on the uptick on tourist/ wildlife conflict? Seems like itâs every week this season!!!
It has been bad this year. Weâre on track to have the most injuries of any year in recent history.
So Iâm of the belief that this comes down to a couple things, one of which is going to expose a major personal bias of mine (youâll know it when you see it):
There arenât enough Rangers this year to keep folks appraised of the rules: So this year weâre operating on a highly reduced staff. Most years Interpretive Rangers are out in force, and weâd be able to keep folks away from animals, respond to calls about wildlife jams (traffic jams caused by animals, either by their standing in the road, or by folks stopping to look). That gives us the ability to both educate the public about safe wildlife viewing rules, and prevent folks from getting into situations that might be dangerous.
People Donât Read Signs: This is a maxim in the NPS, folks just⌠they donât try to read the signs, or the park newspaper, or anything. They will make no effort to educate themselves for their own safety, and will deliberately misread signs they understand to try and get away with things they want to do, which brings me toâŚ
People want a âuniqueâ experience: People right now, for better and worse, are inundated with social media. Thereâs an expectation that there are things you need to see, because thatâs What You Do in the area. Add to that though that folks are always going to want something that other people donât have. That means getting closer to the bear for that great picture. Getting closer to the bison because âhe seems calm.â
The Government Encouraged Unprepared Folks to Come into Wilderness Spaces: When COVID was first getting serious, many state and local governments encouraged people to go outside, go camping and hiking. The CDC is still saying that camping is an extremely low risk activity. As a result a FLOOD of people with no outdoor experience rushed into outdoor places. Zero preparation, zero outdoor knowledge, all these people who would usually vacation in Hawaii are trying to visit the few National Parks that they know offhand. As a result they are used to a resort-type experience, and assume that the space theyâre entering is as controlled of an experience as a big hotel complex in the Bahamas. They are, of course, wrong.
The Disney-fication of Wild Spaces
Movies: People get these images in their heads of movie characters, especially Disney movie characters, having these magical experiences with animals. They hold out their hands, and the animal comes to them. They think they have a special connection with wildlife, that theyâre different than those fools who get hurt. They hold onto this mindset and do things that they really shouldnât be doing because they want to think theyâre special.
Theme Parks: So Disney has made a lot of money off making fake, sanitized versions of Americaâs outdoor spaces, packaging them and selling them to folks. People see the old 1903 Inn near where I worked last year, and their first response is always âOh like the one in Disneyland!â This is the introduction a lot of first-time National Park travelers have to our park. Then they come out here, where there are no smoke machines on the hot springs, they are boiling; there are no safe animals; there are countless ways to die, even in the front country; and they have NO IDEA how to deal with that. Their image of a National Park is a sanitized theme park area, so they show up here asking âWhat are the Best Attractions to do here?â and assuming that they are as safe here as they would be in Disneyland. They assume we wouldnât let them do anything dangerous, and wouldnât allow dangerous things to come to them, because of course! Thereâs just this fundamental misunderstanding about what National Parks are for. Yeah, we want you to have a good time, but this isnât a theme park and if someone canât get their head around that theyâre going to always be in a more dangerous spot that someone else.
This is America and Iâll Do What I Want: Self explanatory.
Anyway, here are the rules for seeing large wildlife:
Stay 25 yards (25m) away from all large animals, exceptâŚ
When watching bear and wolves stay 100 yards (100m) away
If an animals moves toward you, it is on YOU to maintain that distance
In a car you are not obligated to maintain that distance
If youâre watching a bear from your car you probably want to keep your windows up
Do not feed animals, or by inaction cause an animal to eat human food
A fed animal is a dead animal
Wildlife management doesnât want to remove animals, but by feeding the animal you killed it
Throwing a bite of food to a bear is as good for that bear as you getting out of your car with a shotgun and pumping a dozen rounds of buckshot into its face
A habituated bear is more likely to hurt humans in the future, so feeding that animal might also get a person hurt or killed
Even squirrels and birds (but we wonât have to remove them, theyâll just die by themselves)
If an animal changes its behavior because youâre around, you should move further away from it
Do not fly drones near animals (they are illegal in National Parks anyway, but it stresses them out A LOT)
Remember you are a house guest in this animalâs home, be a good guest by practicing leave no trace
If the next person to pass by where you were can tell you were there, you did not practice leave no trace
This means no making cairns, no painting rocks, no carving your name into a tree
Do not disturb anything you donât have to
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