Let the Bears Be Bears

Jasper National Park’s staff work hard to preserve the wildlife habitat in the park. Sometimes, though, animals start behaving differently and wander into places populated with humans. In the case of bears, the challenge is for humans to stay away, to let bears be bears.

Tourists are curious and get too close bears in their cars. Even worse, they get out of their cars in the presence of bears. This acclimates bears to humans. Then the bears eventually lose their fear of humans. When this happens, the situation becomes bad for the bear.

Other times, tenants of Jasper National Park make modifications to plant life and this impacts bears. Some bears will wander into man-made areas when the food is better. The following notice was put out by the superintendent of Jasper National Park about some bears near a golf course that tourists should be cautious of:

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Public Notice

Bear Warning

JASPER NATIONAL PARK

Pursuant to the guidelines established in the Jasper National Park Bear/Human Conflicts Management Plan, this Bear Warning Notice has been posted for the following area:

Trail # 7 adjacent to and up slope of the Jasper Park Lodge Golf Course.

Special caution is recommended while travelling in this area due to the following bear related situation:

A Grizzly bears and at least 4 Black bears are frequenting this area. These bears are being attracted to the lush green vegetation on the golf course and are crossing and travelling Trail #7.

Date : May 08, 2007 / 8 mai 2007

Ron Hooper
Superintendent/Directeur
Jasper National Park/parc national Jasper

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Unfortunately, the human tenants of Jasper National Park, in the effort to make a highly rated golf course, unintentionally attracted bears because of the human planted vegetation.

Now the bears know where the good food is. This is not a great situation, but the wildlife experts know how to handle it.