Text and Wildlife Photography©Jim Robertson
Much has been speculated since the Yellowstone employee was recently found partially consumed by a bear and her two cubs. For example, it can’t be known for certain that the popular bear nicknamed “Blaze” was the one who caused his death—teeth and claws do not leave fingerprints. Likewise, the bear’s motive for killing can’t be known for sure either. Sometimes humans just die easily. According to a recent article in the Washington Post, entitled, “Forget bears: Here’s what really kills people at national parks,” folks are far more likely to die of drowning, car accident, a fall, suicide, pre-existing condition, heat or cold exposure than by wildlife (which is last on the list in descending order).
But the motive for killing the bear was pretty clear: an eye for an eye. This was an act of revenge. You don’t kill a human in this park and get away with it—especially if you yourself are not human. What will the paying park patrons think? After all, the park was created “for the people.” Never mind that grizzly bears are threatened with extinction in the lower 48; are losing habitat daily to anthropogenic climate change and those roughly 700 in Yellowstone have nowhere else to go. The parks are their last semi-safe refuges from savage, heavily armed humans who call for their deaths at every turn. Humans throughout the world kill (and sometimes eat) bears by the tens of thousands on a regular basis.
And never mind that humans, at 7.3 billion and counting, have practically no other
natural predators. Or that by the end of the century when we reach our projected 11 Billion, the Earth’s few remaining lions, tigers and grizzly bears, etc., will either be things of the past adorning someone’s walls or floors, or be locked up as zoo relics. Their lives in the wild will be so over-managed as to be non-existent.
Justice is swift in Yellowstone, especially against the wildlife, whose destruction is pawned-off as euthanasia; or if they leave the park, “harvest.” Get ready for grizzly bear “harvest” to become commonplace unless we stop the plan to delist them from their Threatened status. After all, they’re just another “big game” animal, and the growing number of people need more and more trophy hunting opportunities for the future.
If Blaze’s killing was anything more than simple revenge, it was another statement to the world that humans are top dogs and the laws of Nature (somehow, by virtue of human arrogance) do not apply to us. Don’t mess with us humans or we’ll have you euthanized, you lowly wild ursine, feline, canine, piscine, etc.
Ever since the fatal attack on the park employee, Yellowstone has posted signs all over warning about dangerous bears, but what they really need are signs warning the bears to behave themselves or we’ll trap and euthanize you and maybe take away your Threatened status protections. Then the end result will be a lot more than an eye for an eye!
Exposing the Big Game 
The whole world is a dangerous place for every species but one. Sad 😦
I just read an article by Keith Crowley, “Death of a Man, Death of a Bear”, li He is a writer and frequent visitor to wild places. In the article he virtually excuses every mistake a human can make with regard to bear safety in the Park and says you can do everything right too and still be injured by a bear. He pointed out that the Park was created for human enjoyment, not primarily as a bear refuge, though it has become one. He even witnessed and excused a runner almost running into Blaze and cubs that year. He supported the idea that feeding on a caching a human is the line bears must not cross. Fortunately, for the normally human tolerant bears, there are few situations of human injuries, 47 by bears, or human deaths, 7, in the Park’s history. However, in my view, he and the Park “experts” are wrong about the bottom line issue in death sentence: Bears, wolves, cougars, coyotes, predators etc. will feed on humans. We are potentially prey. Predators don’t usually see humans as prey any more than they see other apex predators as food or prey, but occasionally they do and will feed upon them once killed in confrontation. It is naive to think we humans are above animal fang and claw law. We know the rules/guidelines in predator country which help protect us and the predators. It does not insure us but helps. In the case of Blaze, the man did almost everything he could to get killed by a bear and he did and costs him his life and that of the bear. Humans, in arrogant sense of self-appointed specialness intrude and encroach on the wild, even when we set aside as a Park or refuge.
Totally agree. The Park may have been set aside for human enjoyment, but as a protected of a wilderness, complete with all of its flora and fauna. Don’t they count too? Those who set it aside were wise to realize it might one day be a last refuge for all, and their awareness of self-centered human nature.
I fear for the future of grizzlies with their complicated biologies that are being eclipsed under by modern human life – bears hibernate, reproduce slowly, emerge from hibernation, and who evolved to be omnivores. We are not at the top of the food chain, they are. We have damaged their food supplies with our climate change, damming rivers with salmon, and forest fires.
It is naive to think we humans are above animal fang and claw law.
Yes, those f*ckers out there better not even think about getting a delisting for these bears. It looks like they already have an ‘unofficial cull’ out there anyway. Several bears have been killed. I demand that Yellowstone take a more proactive stance on protecting visitors from themselves and protecting the wildlife from visitors. I want trails closed where mothers and cubs are, and bear spray mandatory if anyone is going out into wilderness, especially alone. I want guns out of the National Parks, and a buffer zone around them.
Reblogged this on GarryRogers Nature Conservation and Science Fiction (#EcoSciFi) and commented:
We must change our attitude toward wildlife. We shoot and poison for our convenience with little regard for the ecosystem consequences. We also need to update our views on population. Let’s hope that the Pope will get serious about population next.
These “expert” agency comments are so biased, and so incorrect, are they not? That is why we cannot take anything they report, or any of their statistics, as fact. Our “Game Dept.” here in NM is also full of crap statistics, which many animal groups take as fact–too bad, but some of us challenge this nonsense. Their latest lie is a statistical report which supports more mountain lion killing. Gee, I wonder if their hunting/grazing cronies on their commission anything to do with it?? Two of the game commissioners (at least ) are members of Safari Club Int’l, and some are public lands ranchers. Wildlife do not stand a chance.
http://www.for animals.org