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Show k2 repair the damage to her skin and muscles. What about the bear? Was it hunted and destroyed? "In a case like that," Janey explains, "the Park Service had to consider it a circumstance vihere the bear was protecting its young in the wilderness. Since a mothering instinct is natural for a wild animal, it would have been unjust to punish the bear. Even if we'd vianted to, we couldn't have been certain of finding the right bear because there are between 250 and 300 grizzlies in the park, plus several hundred black bears. Marianna's case was a tragic encounter between a human and a bear vihere no one vias at fault, because the bear vias acting the way it normally would in the wild." Immediately after the mauling, though, the Heart Lake district was closed and patrolled for most of the summer to make certain that the grizzly viasn't frequenting the trail. When the area was opened again, it vias limited to parties of four or more hikers. "For most people," Janey says, "the only times they've seen real bears are at the zoo or the circus vihere the bears look tame and friendly. But they're wild animals. If their space is intruded upon, they're probably going to get aggressive about it, and it isn't just the bears viho act that way, but all the other large animals as well." Janey believes that visitors to the park should be given a great deal of information about the animals and their behavior, a policy vihich is followed scrupulously in the park. When visitors drive through the entrance stations, they receive pamphlets telling them about bears and other wild animals in Yellowstone, explaining the way that the animals can be expected to act. They're also warned of the dangers from hot thermal pools. |
