Bear stories abound, especially in Yellowstone Park. Here is my favorite, which happened 38 years ago.
Over the years, we have had fun in this space speculating on who has the worst job we could think of.
In the winter, we even had a contest in the Lander newspaper some years ago where we tried to figure out who had the coldest job.
The winner of that, by the way, was the person who worked all night spraying water at City Park to create the ice-skating rink.
But back to my bear story.
Bears, Bears, Bears
One of the best photos that I ever took was of a female grizzly bear. It was near the Lake Hotel in Yellowstone back in May of 1987.
The park service had a lot of problems with that bear and when I read about how they handled the situation, it made for great story-telling.
A park ranger in Yellowstone Park took on a task that ranked with among the worst jobs I've ever heard about. It involved danger, no escape hatch, and smelly working conditions.
This is a follow-up to our news item about a female grizzly bear that graced our lead photo on the front page of May 11, 1987 Lander Journal.
Besides attracting tourists, this sow had attracted a male and both needed to be moved to safer parts of the park. She was called number 134 and was well known among National Park employees. She had been hanging around the Lake Hotel area for some time, which is where I photographed her during the weekend of May 8, 1987.
The Park Service that week were able to remove old No. 134 to different quarters. But the story about how they did it and what they went through is quite interesting.
According to an article by Angus Thuermer, then a reporter for the Jackson Hole News, the female bear loved to fish. She has been known to scoop some 30 fish an hour out of the river. And she instinctively knew that there are eight streams between her home near Heart Lake and the Lake Hotel where spawning fish can be found.
Chief Ranger Dan Sholly (whose son Cam is currently YNP Superintendent) was quoted as saying No. 134 had lost her fear of humans. But she really wasn't the biggest problem. The biggest problem was a huge male grizzly, which was competing for her attentions.
This male, which apparently didn't have a name or a number, followed No. 134 to the Lake Hotel area and started charging vehicles in jealousy. This bear, which rangers estimated to be a giant, made the situation "radically more dangerous," according to the report.
With employees arriving and tourists converging on the park, the behavior of this male was not good. "He was becoming very possessive of her," Sholly said. "That gave us great concern. Our concern became him."
Sholly said the bear was so big rangers guessed a man might not be able to circle his neck with both arms.
The park then activated its Bear Management Committee. Traps were set up for both bears without success. No. 134 was known to be wary of traps so rangers decided on a somewhat different approach, which prompted my observation about this being a terrible job.
That Terrible Job
Ranger Steve Frye took on one of the worst predicaments ever. He climbed inside the bear trap, which contained putrid meat bait. Bears love really putrid meat – the more foul-smelling, the better.
Frye was armed with a tranquilizer gun and there he sat, and waited, and waited, and I assume . . . stunk. In fact, he must have stunk to high heaven. Maybe he was issued a gas mask.
This was a brave man.
Despite the stinking bear bait, this job reminded me a little of those scenes from skin divers who photograph sharks from inside heavy cages.
Finally, old number 134 lumbered nearby and Frye, in my opinion, anyway, already driven mad himself by the stench, nailed her from 20 yards with a drug dart and the bear collapsed.
Some delays occurred in trying to get the helicopter that they normally use to move comatose bears. It was being used for a mountain rescue. Finally, the helicopter arrived and the bear was moved to Heart Lake.
It was assumed the threatening male would now disappear from the area since the object of his attentions is no along around. This was the third time No. 134 had been moved from the Lake Hotel area.
In the meantime, rangers have started an "aversive conditioning" process to teach the female to fear humans, again. This involved playing a California birdcall in the presence of human or automobile sounds while pelting the bear with dum-dum bullets.
Aversive Conditioning
The bear learns to associate the people noises or the birdcall with the pain, and it should learn to retreat whenever it hears either, according to the rangers.
That no doubt worked for the bears.
I don't know what kind of aversive conditioning Ranger Frye had to be put through to restore him to normalcy.
We do know that he went on to have another 30 years of outstanding service to the Park Service.
