On July 11th, Yellowstone National Park staff euthanized an adult female black bear in the Blacktail Deer Creek drainage in the northern part of the park due to repeated incidents involving human food and property damage. The bear’s behavior, which posed a significant threat to visitor safety, prompted the difficult decision to remove it from the population.
The incidents began on June 7th when the bear crushed an unoccupied tent at a backcountry campsite. On July 11th, it escalated by climbing a food storage pole, tearing down properly stored food bags, and consuming the campers’ food. This access to human food led to the bear becoming food-conditioned, a state where bears lose their natural foraging instincts and may act aggressively toward humans, endangering both people and wildlife.Yellowstone
Bear Management Biologist Kerry Gunther explained, “We go to great lengths to protect bears and prevent them from gaining access to human food… But occasionally, a bear outsmarts us or overcomes our defenses.” The decision to euthanize was based on concerns for human safety, property damage, and the bear’s ability to defeat backcountry food storage systems. This marks the first management-related black bear removal in Yellowstone since July 2020, when a bear injured campers and accessed food at another backcountry site.
All 293 backcountry campsites in Yellowstone are equipped with food storage poles or bear-resistant boxes, and park guidelines mandate that campers secure food at all times except when cooking or eating. Visitors are urged to follow these protocols to prevent bears from becoming habituated. For more information on bear safety and responsible backcountry practices, visit nps.gov/yell.
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