September 3, 2009, 3:35 pm
One of Glacier National Park's estimated 1,500 grizzly bears was shot and killed last month after she could not be persuaded to stay away from campgrounds and park officials deemed her a danger to humans. Unfortunately, one of her yearling cubs was inadvertently killed as well after a tranquilizer dart caused internal bleeding. The remaining cub was taken to a zoo in New York.
The unfortunate fate of these three creatures sparked a surge of public attention that will hopefully kindle some meaningful action. After all, this will not be the last time a bear who has become habituated to people has to be removed from the wild - but we can significantly improve the odds by throwing our support behind bear education, including hazing programs.
Our nation's national parks are home to many kinds of wildlife, and people who visit must practice being good guests. When it comes to bears, the Glacier Park managers take great pains to make sure every visitor knows how to behave in a way that keeps both humans and bears safe.
Of course, bears can be taught how to behave around people, too, and that's essentially what hazing programs do - teach bears to stay away from humans and their stuff. The Wind River Bear Institute runs one such program as part of its work teaching both bears and people how to coexist separately and safely, and in fact had worked with the grizzly who was killed by park rangers.
