YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — At approximately 5 p.m. on July 11, Yellowstone National Park (YNP) staff lethally removed an adult female black bear following a series of concerning incidents at a backcountry campsite located in the Blacktail Deer Creek drainage in the northern part of the park.
According to YNP, on June 7, the bear crushed an unoccupied tent at the campsite. A few weeks later, on July 11, the bear climbed the site’s food storage pole, tore down properly stored food bags and consumed the campers’ food.
“Although it is uncommon for bears in YNP to obtain human food, when it does occur, bears can quickly become food-conditioned and may act aggressively or dangerously around humans, putting both people and wildlife at risk,” YNP wrote via press release.
YNP officials made the decision to euthanize the bear after it displayed “escalating” destructive behavior, including property damage and accessing backcountry food storage poles, which “posed a clear threat to visitor safety.”
“We go to great lengths to protect bears and prevent them from gaining access to human food in all areas of the park,” YNP Bear Management Biologist Kerry Gunther said via press release. “But occasionally, a bear outsmarts us or overcomes our defenses. When that happens, we sometimes have to make the difficult decision to remove the bear from the population to protect people and property.”
In accordance with YNP’s bear management practices, each of the park’s 293 backcountry campsites is equipped with either a food storage pole or a bear-resistant storage box. Park guidelines require backcountry campers to hang food from the pole or secure it in the box at all times except when cooking or eating. YNP reminds all visitors that utilizing these bear safety measures remains crucial in ensuring public safety and preventing wildlife from developing dangerous habits.
On May 15, YNP staff trapped and killed an 11-year-old male grizzly bear after it became food conditioned and overturned several bear-resistant dumpsters. The last black bear killed in a management action in YNP was in July 2020, when a black bear injured campers and accessed human food at a backcountry campsite in the park.
