Trying to keep people away from large predators in Yellowstone National Park has become an increasingly daunting and thankless task, a biologist told a panel of officials Wednesday.
On Tuesday, rangers were trying to move a crowd away from three grizzlies and four wolves that had gathered around the carcass of a drowned bison on the bank of the Yellowstone River.
Instead of showing gratitude, tourists started yelling at the rangers, said Kerry Gunther, National Park Service (NPS) bear management biologist.
“When we were trying to tell people to get back, they were yelling at us to leave,” Gunther remarked Wednesday during a meeting of the Yellowstone Ecosystem Subcommittee of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee in Bozeman, Montana.
The wolves and bears had been acting aggressively toward each other, getting into clashes over who got first dibs on the bison carcass.
He noted that the day before there had been an “incident” in which two people were injured in a grizzly attack.
He was referring to two hikers who were mauled near Old Faithful Monday afternoon.
Neither Gunther or other agency representatives giving yearly bear conflict reports to the subcommittee gave any details about Monday’s attack.
Ring Around The Grizzly
It’s against the rules in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park to get any closer than 100 yards from wolves and bears.
Gunther said there were signs posted and warnings given for tourists to keep back at least 100 yards from the predators trying to feed on the bison carcass in the river.
But people were ignoring the 100-yard closure and “they were just trying to walk right up to the scene,” he said.
It was one of many examples of people being careless around bears, Gunther said.
Some of the worst human antics are at “bear jams,” which are becoming more common in Yellowstone, he said.
A bear jam is when traffic piles up after a bear is spotted in or near a road in Yellowstone or Grand Teton.
There were 602 grizzly bear jams and 922 black bear jams reported in Yellowstone during the summer of 2025, an all-time record, Gunther said.
Park personnel try to be at each bear jam, to keep people from crowding bears, but staff is spread thin, he said.
No personnel were present at 147 of the grizzly jams, Gunther said.
“If we're not there, people will get closer to the bears for better pictures, and they will encircle the bear to get in the front row. And it can turn into a mess really fast,” he said.
There are typically 500 bear jams a year in Grand Teton, split about evenly between grizzlies and black bears, NPS bear biologist Justin Schwabedissen told the subcommittee.
One Person Bitten In 2025
During the last tourist season, no human-grizzly conflicts were reported in Grand Teton, he said.
There were seven human-bear conflicts in Yellowstone in 2025, one of which resulted in a human injury, Gunther said. The yearly average is about 10.
The conflict with an injury involved a man who was hiking alone on a remote trail when he surprised a grizzly that was on an elk carcass “at really close range,” Gunther said.
The hiker pulled his bear spray and tried to use it on the bear, but wasn’t sure if he hit the grizzly.
“The bear just bit him a couple of times and ran away,” Gunther said, and the man was able to hike back out on his own.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
