The Bear Necessities

Overnight visitors in the High Peaks region of the Adirondack Park are required to carry a bear canister with all of their smell-ibles, and for a good reason—bears are smart.  The traditional “bear bags” used elsewhere in the US were of little use against bears who learned fairly quickly that gnawing through a rope brought a bag full of goodies plummeting to the ground.  High numbers of visitors in the park (particularly in the High Peaks) necessitated the transition to bear canisters in an effort to decrease human-bear interactions.  Dehumanized bears lose their fear of humans, becoming dangerous not only to unwary hikers but also to themselves—a fed bear is a dead bear.

At first, this transition to canisters worked: human-bear encounters dropped from 374 in 2005 to 61 after enforcement of the rule.  The canisters protected hikers’ lunches while the bears walked away hungry.  One bear, however, would not be defeated and gained considerable publicity for her ability to break through the BearVault and other “bear-proof” canisters.  Weighing in at only 125lbs, this female, middle-aged black bear managed to gracefully open bear canisters that confounded not only grizzly bears out west but also some less bright campers.  She is named after two yellow tags on either of her ears, used by park rangers to keep tabs on her.  Her name: Yellow-Yellow.

Thanks to her ability to break into their bear canisters, BearVault twice redesigned their product to withstand Yellow-Yellow’s tampering and specifically bring prototypes to the park filled with her favorite treats to test them—to no avail.  Unfortunately, a couple of years ago, she was shot and killed by a hunter, but her legacy lives on as unfortunate hikers who lose their lunches still curse her name.  There is also evidence that Yellow-Yellow shared her ingenuity with some eager followers. 

While these exploits make for excellent folk-lore, there is significant danger in wildlife losing their fear of humanity.  Without reinforcing the notion that we are dangerous in encounters with animals, they will become bold and attack humans to achieve their ends, resulting in the shooting of the animal to ensure it doesn’t harm any park visitors.  So let us praise the ingenuity of the Adirondack bears who single-handedly (or single paw-edly!) shaped the design of bear canisters while understanding that humans and bears are not supposed to get along and that we should scare them away when we catch them sniffing around our food.

Also, here is the link to a hilarious video of Yellow-Yellow stealing a backpack:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMPSjzKzC-c

Source: Foderaro, Lisa W., 2009.  "Bear-Proof Can Is Pop-Top Picnic for a Crafty Thief."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/nyregion/25bear.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&