There is nothing quite as exciting as seeing a powerful grizzly in the wild on a cool spring morning or a black bear sow with her playful cubs exploring their new world. For more than 40 years, the park’s bear program has collected information used to monitor grizzly and black bear population numbers, monitor food habits, and causes of mortality. Crucial funding for the park’s bear management program supports conservation, research, and management of bears in the park. The National Park Service has taken a prominent role in developing methods to manage park visitors in a manner to reduce human-bear conflicts and human causes of mortality while promoting bear conservation. The program implements many proactive measures for management and prevention of human-bear conflicts, including support of food-storage bear-proof boxes. Preventing bears from obtaining human food is one of the top priorities of Yellowstone’s wildlife managers. Installing bear-proof metal food storage boxes in Yellowstone’s campgrounds improves visitor safety and ensures a safe camping experience for humans and bears.
Continuation of this science-based program is essential to long-term conservation of grizzly and black bears in the Yellowstone region. Adding to the need is the recent proposal by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to remove grizzly bears from Threatened Species status under the Endangered Species Act.
With your help, Yellowstone Forever is supporting key aspects of bear management and conservation in Yellowstone. Thank you for your continued support!
Installing bear-proof food storage boxes in Yellowstone’s roadside campgrounds improves visitor safety and prevents bears from accessing human food. To date, the park’s Bear Management team, with the help of 