Grizzly

"Landep News"

Grizzly

For the first time in 25 years Yellowstone Park has seen a fatal bear attack. The victim was a 25 year old hiker. Yet bear attacks on humans is not unheard of in the Yellowstone region. This could have two major causes.

First of all, the grizzly bear is slowly but surely recovering from the federally protected status as an endangered species. And secondly, the number of tourists that come to Yellowstone has been increasing in the past few years. They tend to take on trails where wildlife can be seen.

This means that there are more chances, a hiker will encounter a grizzly in the wild, therefore increasing the risks of an attack. Risky isn’t it?

In June 2010 a grizzly has been released inside the park after being sedated for some studies. The bear killed a hiker just outside Yellowstone’s east gate. Last July there was another attack. A man from Michigan was killed and two others were injured when the bear raided the campground near Cooke City. Just this year it as been reported that a female grizzly attacked two people that were following a trail through the Gallatin National Forest.

This attack took place inside Yellowstone. A husband and his wife were following the Wapiti Lake trail when they encountered a grizzly female with cubs. The female, trying to protect her cubs from potential danger, attacked and killed the man. Apparently there was another group of hikers that heard the woman scream and called 911 from a cell phone. The park rangers responded quickly and stabilized the scene.

Since the incident all trails that pose a potential danger, such as grizzly encounter, were closed until further notice.

In the past 25 years since the last fatal bear attack, the population of tourists that visit the park annually has increased by 50%, bringing the total amount of hikers or visitors to 3.6 million people.

Meanwhile, since the grizzly has been placed under the protection of the Endangered Speacies Act back in 1975, the bear population is slowly recovering. Still the population within the lower 48 states is by far lower than the estimated historical which states that no less than 50.000 were roaming through the woods of America. Would you have gone hiking then?

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