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Show 33 and bears. Perhaps because bears stand upright to look like shaggy human giants, perhaps because their awesome strength excites bear-watchers viith the possibility of sudden danger, people have always been fascinated by them. Indians called them "beasts that walk like men." Toddlers hug teddy bears in their beds at night and grow up feeling affection for Smoky Bear, Gentle Ben and Yogi Bear. Since people have always come to Yellowstone to see bears, during the 1950's and 60's park rangers did their best toiprovide bears for people to look at. Not only did the big animals forage, viith the Park Service's blessing, in the 2,000 tons of garbage left behind by summer visitors, they also stood along the edges of the roads to beg for food like oversized puppies. Janey says, "The rangers called them 'cookie bears' - they viere eating marshmallows and cookies and candy. They weren't having to forage for themselves and find their own food, and they were bringing up their cubs to live on handouts, too." Even though it was illegal for visitors to feed bears, in those years the illicit feedings were mostly overlooked. If the visitors had been content to stay in their cars and just watch, the only result might have been the bears' loss of dignity and optimum health. But tourists vianted to take close-up pictures for the folks back home, or they vianted to reach out and pet the bears. The result was hundreds of bites, scratches, and clawings which gave Yellowstone's bears an undeserved bad reputation. By the early 1970*s, park administrators closed the garbage dumps and became strict viith visitors who fed bears. Once the artificial food |