Hi All,
You may recall our story from 2013 of a black bear sow with a cub who frightened a woman out of her lawn chair
ripped open her cooler and fed her cub.
The park tried unsuccessfully to trap this bear. Bears with cubs are very wary.
She's back this year with another cub to whom she was teaching bad habits.
We know it is the same bear because of a yellow ear tag in her left ear from a previous research study.
This year's cub looks very healthy.
In spite of our best efforts to have visitors secure their food except when actually eating, she got a lot of "food rewards". Last week she stole three back packs and tore open a cooler.
Yesterday morning we were dispatched to the String Lake picnic area for a report of a bear and cub. Once on scene we confirmed it was "yellow ear tag" and contacted our boss. Kate requested that we follow the bear but not try to scare her away. We followed them over hill and dale for about 90 minutes until the professionals arrived with tranquilizer guns, bear trap, part of a road killed elk for bait . . .
It took over two hours to tranquilizer mom, carry her into the trap then lure the cub into the trap with mom. When the cub first tried to climb into the trap it was too high so two of us carried a log over for the cub to use as a step stool.
The Park staff spent the day trying to decide the fate of the bear. Mom was a nuisance and possibly dangerous but we assume few wanted to euthanize the bear given the uproar recently in Yellowstone.
While the humans were deciding what to do, a double size trap was created to give mom and cub more space, water and food.
Tonight we learned that both bears will get a new home at the Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls, SD. How ironic; next time we get our licenses renewed in Sioux Falls we can visit the bears. And we will!
It was exciting, at times a little scary when the cub ran back and forth and we realized we were between mom and the cub and ultimately very sad. These beautiful animal's lives would be spared but even a great zoo cannot compare to Grand Teton.
Love,
Sandy & Carl
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502
