American Black Bear captured by Z 9 / 800f5.6AFS
Yellowstone has a very well-earned reputation for bears, Grizzly, and American Black. Back in the 40s, large garbage dumps in the park attracted hundreds of Black Bears. Bleachers were built at the dumps for folks to sit and watch the bears feed on the garbage. Cars would park along the road and hand-feed the black bears in those days, it was a total mess for the black bears. Fast forward the clock to last week. Someone thought that they too should try to feed, hand feed a bear that the Techs have come to call Phantom Lake Bear. It was explained to her that feeding bears is not only illegal, is very dangerous (she was reaching out of her car to feed the bear) but really bad for the bear on so many levels. This story was being told to me by a Tech as he explained the bear had a bad limp because it had been hit by a car! He is a gorgeous bear, should heal but bad habits have been started.