National Park managers clarify rules for wildlife watching

Bear and cubs cross road in Grand Teton National Park

Encounters between bears and humans in National Parks are on the increase. Bears become more used to humans presence the hungrier they are, and are driven to look for food in drought areas like Southern Colorado.

Many wildlife watchers erroneously think that because the bears don't appear imminently dangerous, that they are tame. So park managers are devising new rules--not for the bears, they will still be allowed to be bears--but for their biped watchers.

In Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, humans will not be allowed to "willfully approach" bears, for a photograph for instance, within 100 yards.

In Canada's Banff National Park all hikers must be in groups of at least four, and a minimum of one in the party must carry bear spray. You can expect these rules to increase--and for good reason--as it seems that many of us humans tend to anthropomorphize our values and mores onto the bears and expect them to act accordingly.

But they don't. And until we convince ourselves that wild animals are wild and will act like it, sometimes in what we think are in unpredictable ways, these rules will have to fill in for our lacking in common sense.