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It has been one of the saddest and most entertaining opening months that I can remember as a Yellowstone area resident. This past month’s events had me laughing, angry and of course doubting the overall course of humanity with the lack of common sense that was put on display for all to see.
Up first is the now famous bison calf that got its life shortened by Canadian tourists who thought it was cold. Yup, they stuffed the little guy inside their rental car and took it to the nearest ranger station to ensure it didn’t die. What amazes me is that they were able to corral the thing, pick it up and load it without an encounter with a very large, four-legged mother.
After “rescuing” the calf they were cited by the National Park Service for their actions, which conveniently for us included pictures of the small bison in the back of their vehicle. Park rangers then made their best effort to reintroduce the animal to its herd. Sadly, the animal was rejected by the herd after it’s ride with the park visitors and had to be euthanized. What is even more sad is that people are actually rationalizing the man’s actions!
In the same week that the juvenile bison was making headlines, we had more stupidity in the park. A camera crew decided that leaving the boardwalk and trekking across the Grand Prismatic hot spring was a great idea. Apparently they didn’t get burned by a hot stove accidentally as small children because those hot springs aren’t something I would want to risk falling into.
Social media also made other park visitors famous as they attempted to pet grown bison. Others still were making attempts to take selfies with them at very close distances. This isn’t just limited to Yellowstone either, Custer State Park had their first woman be gored by a bison bull when she got too close.
Over the Memorial Day weekend video surfaced of a woman getting too close to a cow elk and her calf. This one didn’t end well for the woman when the cow ran into her. She is lucky the cow didn’t want to do more damage than what she did.
What scares me about these incidents the most is that these people have an influence on our big game and large predator management. Every time a court battle is fought we are told that people want to see bears and wolves just as much, if not more than they want to see elk and mule deer. The crazies who pet bison and stuff them inside of cars to rescue them are the same ones who the enviros are worried won’t be able to see wildlife in Yellowstone. Let that sink in for a second.
I love the money that the tourists bring to my county and I love the opportunities that are here where I choose to live. However, I don’t go into the park every year because I have been there and seen it many times. The craziness and road jams may also have something to do with it. My concern is seeing the elk that migrated out of the park every single year and seeing them maintain healthy populations where I do visit. Take a look at the tag numbers from 20 years ago in the NW corner of Wyoming and look at where they are now. The way it looks from where I sit the people living in the Disney version of nature are successfully hijacking which animals receive the highest priority by using the ESA as a weapon.
That type of logic is pure craziness. We have to fight tooth and nail to get wolves and grizzly bears off of the endangered species list for a chance to manage them and establish healthy populations based on carrying capacity. All the while people who don’t have the common sense not to pet a bison are pawns in a struggle for the continued success of the North American model of wildlife management.
Well said Guy, and it saddens me too. While visiting Yellowstone in October about 20 years ago, I witnessed spectators leave the pavement to get closer to a Grizzly that had killed a moose, and was sitting on the kill. That was before wolf reintroduction, and that may have saved their life.
We were 75 yds from the bear, standing on the pavement, and I told my hunting partner(we had been antelope hunting in Gillette prior) that we are too close, stay close to the vehicle, which he eagerly agreed. We were one of the first cars to spot the bear. By the time 20 cars had arrived, the place was getting chaotic, and a park ranger had arrived and was instructing tree huggers to stay on the pavement, which was 75 yds from the bear and his kill. We are still standing next to our truck, and two tourists step down into the ditch and proceed to walk towards the bear, with cameras in hand. I told my partner “lets go” because I did not want to be on CNN when that bear breaks for a tourist. The grizzly shifted when the tourists stepped off the pavement, and were now 70 yds from the bear , and his kill. The ranger had his back turned, and was directing traffic that was stopping in the middle of the road. He turned and saw turistas in the ditch, and about came unglued, it all was funny, and we could not stop laughing from inside the truck.
Had we walked up on this bear in the back forty, within 75 yds of his kill, would likely been charged.
The tourists did listen at the heightened voice of the ranger, and I was sure the bear would break then, but he buried his head in the moose, and denied pictures to the turistas, I think the bear was laughing at the whole event, and was full of moose meat.
As funny as this is, the individuals had no respect for a mature grizzly on a kill. But they are the types that scream for ESA protection for “teddy”, with no real knowledge of this alpha predator, and his ecosystem. There were more on the pavement that would have followed those people within 20 feet of that bear. It was surreal to see adults act so ignorantly, and lends direct correlation to today’s issues. We are surrounded by utopians, that believe wildlife is tame, and as sacred as human life, and that is tragically dangerous to our freedom .
Seems like most of the idiots THIS year in Yellowstone are hosers from the great white north.
Perhaps we need a wall on the northern border?
Never would have believed that those taking the Calf in the vehicle would have been from BC! First guess would have been California or the east coast.