Young Bear Sighting at Kings Canyon
Very bittersweet to see. Obviously very cute, but desensitization can and has led to euthanasia.
I tried yelling, screaming, and making noise to get it to leave the campsite. It didn’t react at all to me because, as informed by the park ranger, people are constantly feeding the bears and leaving ice chests out and accessible. The ranger also said the cubs have learned bad habits from adults in the area, who have been knocking over bear boxes and also have been fed.
Once a crowd of about 15 gathered to help, it began leaving, but stayed in the area. Someone had left their easy to open ice chest in their truck while away from camp. Myself and two other women (not the owners of the truck) got the heavy ice chest down and put it in the site’s *empty* bear box. The kicker is it that happened the day before, same group, same thing.
In case you are not aware, this is how bears get euthanized. They become desensitized to humans, get too close and eventually can and will harm someone. Even this baby lunged at us at one point.
They don’t deserve to die just because we have invaded their home. Do not feed the bears, and please actually use the provided bear boxes. Please help if you see one by actively trying to scare it away from a safe distance, yell, bang pots, throw pine cones and rocks in its direction, all as stated by the ranger. Also, a crowd is much more effective than just one person (which is sort of a given, but I was yelling alone for about 15 minutes wondering where any help was).
All I can hope is that this bear survives.