A JOURNAL FOR MEMBERS OF THE YOSEMITE ASSOCIATION YOSEMITE BEAR PATROL ... FARLEY -a're at Yocemi+e.,, ~U 're 90i19 hiking -'r you're camping. '&4 decide to leave Nvur f2OcJ in 4-) e Car. BY PHIL FRANK (June 28,1998, The San Francisco YOSEMITE BEAR PATROL ... Chronicle, Reprinted with Permission ON THE TRAIL OF URNS AMERICANUS It's early June and I 'm one of thousands of visitors star- number of break-ins in search of food is down noticeably ing in awe at the natural wonders of Yosemite Valley . I'm in the last week, thanks to the sprouting of valley grasses, here, however, to do research for a book about bears . An a natural food source for the bears, and a massive bear opportunity to go out on bear patrol with Park Service information campaign in Yosemite—an effort that actu- wildlife technician Kate McCurdy has been extended . My ally seems to be working, for the moment . The news that curiosity about black bears makes it an opportunity not park visitors can now be ticketed for leaving food or other to be missed. bear attractants in their cars seems to be helping a situa- The staff is meeting at the wildlife office, a small, shin- tion that inevitably pits people against bears. gled bungalow that is tucked back against the valley wall The plan is to conduct an evening patrol through the behind the maintenance yard . It looks like a hundred Curry Village tent cabins, scene of numerous recent other Yosemite cabins except that this one has five steel trashings by black bears. Each of the tents involved was bear traps on wheels parked in front of it. occupied and contained food. The experience had put the Inside, Kate is briefing Tory and Matt, her assistants— fear of the Lord into the campers and had encouraged a college wildlife management students out of Arizona on sudden increase in the use of the bear-proof food storage summer assignment. Introductions are made all around. containers . In spite of this, the bears were still coming Kate briefs her staff about recent bear sightings and back, looking for an easy meal . They had to be discour- The "Farley cartoon" incidents. Since March 22nd there have been 127 reported aged. If they refused to be discouraged, they'd be darted on the cover and automobile break-ins by valley bears* . Some of the cul- with a tranquilizer and removed to another part of the others throughout prits were known " nuisance" bears. Others were new to park. If they returned and continued to interact aggres- the article are the valley and to the team—untagged and unstudied . The sively with humans, they'd be killed. As Kate explained it: reprinted by "It's very easy to train a bear. It's very difficult to untrain permission of * October 3 update : I009 vehicle break-ins, combined with other a bear." Phil Frank/ bear incidents = $587,277 in damages. 3 bears have been killed. San Francisco Kate announces a seven p.m. rendezvous at the Curry Chronicle. Village community of 350 tent cabins. She would be '4466 6666 66-6d3-"ddi! bringing along Logan, her Karelian bear dog. The crew meets as scheduled and fans out . Logan is popular with the campers and earns numerous pets as campers relate their recent bear sightings . In twenty min- utes Kate's radio crackles to life. Matt and Tory have encountered a yearling that had been reported earlier rummaging for food . The cub is a repeat offender and Kate is determined to teach it a not-so-pleasant lesson about getting too close to people. Matt reports the bear is moving westerly in the tree and boulder landscape above the tent city — in our direction . We move up into the ter- rain. Bill Campbell, a Time magazine photographer who is, like me, tagging along tonight, spots the bear twenty yards away. Logan picks up the bear's scent and spots it. He tenses and tugs at the leash . Kate unhooks him. The bear takes off with Logan close behind, barking and nip- ping at its heels . Within seconds the young bear is thirty feet up a fir tree, staring down at a frantic Logan . The dog's yelps echo through the campground. Catching the -UEZr~`( IMP Y RUNG NF,AR excited, tree-circling dog is a three-person job . Once that is accomplished we all move closer to the tent area and settle in to wait for the chastised bear to descend . If it 2 YOSEMITE ASSOCIA Tm ON, FALL 1998 s ! 4 f i if i 1,..A¢6E CIN JArMOIs COW'Ep A OO- $bACK g Q DO WI MlD-DAy Inj KAY a'IGKINi UP 1IGNAL fnz 'FAR MOORS BI Nr p CHAPEL AT (wHI1 31) AT YoSSMITF VAL LEY• SUNNY4ttE wAUc rN 4An+r~ 5.304M heads up into the boulder field and its natural habitat, it Kate informs me that a few days earlier the owner of a will be left alone. If it makes one move toward the tents, Range Rover called the Public Affairs officer for the Park Logan will be released again. Service and demanded a guarantee by the park that if he As we wait, curious campers gather to watch the pro- drove his new car to Yosemite it would not be broken into. ceedings. An eleven-year-old camper from Bakersfield, When it comes to bears, there ARE no guarantees. Cameron Bayne, who watched the treeing wants to know " Frenchie" from Sacramento found that out the night why I am writing notes by flashlight . Informed that I am before over at Housekeeping Camp. As we make a walk- working on a story for a newspaper, he insists upon being through of the large camp area on the banks of the interviewed. According to Cameron, this is the first bear Merced, Frenchie sheepishly reports the car break-in to he has ever seen and he feels that the bear had to be Kate. Bear activity is common in this camp . The night taught a lesson and that Logan did a good job. "I think before, Frenchie came face-to-face with a good-sized the people have to be taught a lesson, too, " says Cameron. black bear. After a momentary face-off, it became appar- "They need to put their food away. It's not just the bear's ent the bear was just passing through on its way else- fault." He watches closely what I am writing and wants it where. Ten minutes later two crashes in the dark parking read back to make sure I am quoting him correctly. lot made it clear that the bear had found what it had been Tory sits on a log holding a fresh loaf of bread that one looking for . The owner of a van had left a large box of camper casually left on their cabin steps . A week earlier, raisins inside the vehicle. The window was shattered, the Kate, on patrol, drove into a campground parking area to van was entered, the food was eaten . Frenchie's `95 Honda find a large bear sitting in the parking lot with a bottle of was parked next to the van. There was no food in it but molasses tipped back, drinking the contents. the passenger side window is open two inches—an easy After fifteen minutes, as dusk settles, the scratching of break-in for a 300-pound black bear . Frenchie's car was the descending bear 's claws on the tree trunk can be like an innocent bystander at an urban crime scene—in heard. Logan tenses, whining and tugging at the leash . A the wrong place at the wrong time. One more duct-taped, brown blur heading away from the tent camp is all we see plastic-sheeted window. of the retreating bear. We head out in separate trucks to The good news is that Housekeeping Camp is remark- begin cruises of the various campground parking lots. ably clean. We encounter a camper who is voluntarily Kate and I spot piles of shattered glass from recent win- going from site to site, telling people to make sure there's dow breakings and an occasional miscreant 's car with a no food left in their cars. Kate is heartened after weeks of makeshift "window" of plastic sheeting or garbage bag bad-news-bears stories . She is further pleased by the con- duct-taped to the door frame . dition of two piles of bear scat we 've spotted in the last YOSEMITE ASSOCIATION, FALL 1998 Many people are curioU We Snir around -I1,e Pulling outward and down as 10 hoW a beargets rnto a windows flrsl . Bea1'~ in one -Fluid movement we locked autornobile . Nere , can ever) Smell -food bend I-he window frame, Olaf, a Yosemite bear whdll locked in a trunk 9ha11ering fhe glass and reveal the hicks of +),e trade. -FJ,is way... 1 providing access +othe. interiOr and -fl,e trunk. Thankj, p;1da. 1_ / wL /1t1-nn-7 .. ' meat and f')11~Y~~~,~Jel!y. hour. Both are composed entirely of Valley grasses. ing the aerial, Kate picks up the signal for the adult female There's no junk food or paper or plastic packaging mate- with the white number 37 ear tag . She is a hundred yards rial evident in them. off in the woods . We've just missed her. We call it quits at 10 p.m. and agree to meet again at Kate reads the campsite number from the receipt on 5:30 in the morning for the dawn patrol.