Bear Ahead!

Photo Credit: Drew Wharton

Visitors to Yosemite Valley last fall were more likely than usual to see a bear during their trip. Acorns dropping from Yosemite Valley’s black oaks were perfectly timed with black bears entering hyperphagia, a period when bears are looking for big calorie boosts (up to 20,000 calories every day or eleven pounds of acorns) as they prepare for winter hibernation. Other fall food sources may have fallen flat, making the acorns in Yosemite Valley a particularly big draw for bears. It was truly a sight to behold! Despite normally being solitary animals, numerous bears could were regularly foraging together in small areas due to the abundant food source. Sows were leading their cubs through their first acorn harvest and even exciting displays of the hierarchy among bears was playing out—with dominant bears (often the large males or defensive sows) chasing the more subordinate bears (often the smaller and younger bears) away from their feast.

Photo Credit: Drew Wharton

In years like last year when acorns are abundant, the trees attract bears which in turn attracts the attention of thousands of enthralled visitors. While these displays are exciting to witness, the proximity of some of these bear-filled oaks to busy roads, trails, and development can create big hazards for bears. Rangers extensively and creatively managed these areas in order to keep people back and allow these bears to remain wild. Initially, rangers tried scaring the bears away from oaks near trails and roads, only to have them return a few minutes later. The bears quickly made it clear that they weren’t going anywhere as long as the acorn feast remained. These bears triggered massive crowds and huge traffic jams (“bear jams”), which created some chaotic situations. Ultimately, a temporary trail closure gave bears and people a bigger buffer, and rangers spent most of their shifts monitoring the situation, keeping people back, and educating thousands of people about the importance of giving wildlife space as they admired the agile tree climbing eating machines.

Photo Credit: Drew Wharton

For bears, their natural fear of people is an important instinct that keeps them safe. When a bear becomes habituated, losing its natural fear of people, other behaviors can change and dangerous situations can evolve with people. This is why rangers staffed these areas from late August through November. Rangers also created a fun new display to show people exactly how far they should be from a bear: a fun wooden bear silhouette designed to stand a 50 yards down a trail from a sign with bear information on it. This sign explained what to do if you see a bear, and demonstrated exactly how far visitors should remain from bears in order to help keep them wild. All these efforts, as well as the interest that visitors took to learn and understand their role in protecting wildlife in national parks, helped make a difference in these acorn eating bear’s lives.




You stand up, face the bear, wave your arms, and yell at the bear. We mean YELL at the bear, as loudly as you possibly can. Be aggressive with your voice and body language. You’re not just making noise; you’re scaring a bear away! You have to mean it for it to work.

Here are some examples of things you can yell:




Or even just: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH BEAR!!!!!!!!!

One half-hearted yell may not be enough to scare a bear. So, keep yelling LOUDLY and AGGRESSIVELY until the bear leaves. Yell, clap your hands, wave your arms, hit a stick against a tree, get other people to help you yell! You can even throw small objects like pinecones or small pebbles at the bear to help scare it. (You’re trying to gently hit the bear with the pebble or pinecone—not injure it: Bears don’t like being touched.) Don’t chase the bear; just use your voice to scare it away.

Do you have time to snap a quick picture? No! 

Do you have time to look around for a pot to bang or a whistle to blow? No! Use your voice! Your voice is your most effective tool to scare a bear away (and you don’t have to go looking for it… unless you’re really scared). 

When a bear is around people, it could be only moments away from getting food, so you need to make it feel unwelcome immediately. Once a bear is eating food, it will be harder to scare away and much more likely to return in search of more food, ultimately getting itself into more trouble. We also want bears to be immediately afraid of people (as they naturally are), rather than assuming most people aren’t scary.

Bears that consume human food typically have decayed and damaged teeth. But that’s not the only negative consequence: when a bear gets food from people, even just a banana, the bear will change its natural behavior. Bears are extremely food-driven and a bear that gets human food will often become so bold in its attempts at getting human food that it has to be killed to protect people. So, when you see a bear approaching you or in any developed area (e.g., campground, picnic area, trail, parking lot), it is important to scare it away immediately, stopping this cycle, and helping keep the bear wild and alive. Yes, yelling at a bear helps keep it alive.

What about when you see a bear in a meadow, in the wilderness, or anywhere else away from human development or people—should you scare it? Generally, no. Do you have time to snap a quick picture? Probably, if you are at least 50 yards away from the bear. It can be one of the best Yosemite experiences getting to watch a wild bear do wild bear things.

Are you having trouble envisioning scaring a bear away? This video shows what it sounds and looks like. This advice applies in Yosemite; always check local recommendations when visiting bear country. 

Speeding Kills Bear

We get this call a lot. Too much, to be honest. “Bear hit by vehicle, dead on the side of the road.” Sadly, it’s become routine. I log the coordinates into my phone, gather the equipment I may need, and head to the location. This call came in cold; it sounds like the collision happened sometime around noon and it’s 4 pm now. The location is an hour’s drive away, so by the time I get there it’s well after 5 pm. I pull off on the shoulder, lug a large backpack of equipment over my back, and head off down the road. My job here is easy, really: find the bear, move its body far away from the road to prevent any other animals from getting hit while scavenging on it, fill out a report, and collect samples and measurements for research. Then I’m off on my way again with another number to add to the total of bears hit by vehicles this year—data we hope will help prevent future collisions. Pretty callous. However, the reality behind each of these numbers is not.
Per the coordinates I was given, I’m still a few hundred yards off, so I continue down the road scanning it for blood as cars whiz by. I try to remember how many times I’ve done this now and, truthfully, I don’t know. This is not what any of us signs up for, but it’s a part of the job nonetheless. Then something catches my eye. It’s small and artificial, and laying in the middle of the road. As I walk closer, I see that it’s a broken shapeless car part, likely from an undercarriage. More cars whiz past. I turn my gaze from the car part down the embankment on the side of the road and there it is.  
A cub. Its tiny light brown body laying just feet from me and the road, nearly invisible to every passerby. It’s a new cub—couldn’t be much more than six months old, now balled up and lifeless under a small pine tree. For a moment I lose track of time as I stand there staring at its tiny body, but then the sound of more cars whizzing by reminds me of my place and my role. I let out a deep sigh and continue on with my task.  
I pick up the cub—it couldn’t be much more than 25 pounds—and begin carrying it off into the woods. I have no certain destination; I’m just walking until I can no longer hear the hiss of the road behind me. I see a grassy spot surrounded by a semi-ring of down logs and gravitate towards it. The least I can do is find it a nice place to be laid. I lay it down in the grass protected by one of the nearby logs and sit back on the log opposite of it, slightly relieved that it looks far more in place now than when I found it earlier. I take another moment and then continue with my work.
I slide off my backpack, remove a binder, and start the assessment. It’s a female. This immediately triggers thoughts of the life this bear may have lived—perhaps she would have had cubs of her own—but before I finish that thought I hear a stick break and look up. Just beyond the ring, there’s a familiar figure intently staring back at me. It’s another bear. Surprised, I stand up quickly and the bear runs off into the brush but stops not far off and looks back at me. Acting on instinct, I pick up a stick and smash it over a tree to scare the bear further away. I stand there quietly, listening as I hear the bear’s footsteps tapper away.  
A few silent minutes pass, and I settle back into my task. Timely coincidence, I think at first. It could be a bear coming to scavenge or this could be a common crossing area for whatever reason—we did have another bear hit and killed not far from here last week. But then I hear it, and it changes my mind completely. From behind me there’s a deep toned but soft sounding grunt. I immediately know what it is. It’s a vocalization, the kind sows (female bears) make to call to their cubs. I turn and look in its direction and there she is, the same bear from before intently staring back at me. It’s no coincidence. I can feel the callousness drain from my body. This bear is the mom, and she never left her cub.

Photo Credit: NPS

My heart sinks. It’s been nearly six hours and she still hasn’t given up on her cub. I can just imagine how many times she darted back and forth on that road in attempts to wake it. It’s extremely lucky that she wasn’t hit as well. The calls to the cub continue, sounding more pained each time. I glance back finding myself hoping it would respond to her call too, but of course, nothing. Now here I am, standing between a grieving mother and her child. I feel like a monster.  
I get up, quickly pack my bag, and get out of there. It is time to go even though my task is not done. Quickly, I set up a remote camera. Why? Every year we report the number of bears that get hit by vehicles, but numbers don’t always paint a picture. I want people to see what I saw: the sad reality behind each of these numbers.  

Four Bears Hit by Vehicles in Yosemite this Month

Black bear mother and cubs (Photo: Robert G. Lester)



Do Yosemite Bears Hibernate?

It’s a simple fact that black bears spend their whole life following their stomachs, including in winter. Similar to the postman’s motto, “neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night,” keeps a bear from eating its fill. So for bears in Yosemite, winter denning is not associated with the weather so much as it is linked to food availability. There are years when oak trees make an over-abundance of acorns, considered a mast year, and bears can been seen all winter digging under feet of snow to feast on acorns. Similarly, it has been reported in other areas that bears will rouse from winter dens to take advantage of trash cans that are put out curbside every week on trash day. So while bear behavior can be motivated by both human and unnatural foods, it is not uncommon to find bear tracks in the snow and it is important to always lock up food in a hard-sided structure or in a food locker when visiting Yosemite.

Picture taken recently from the Yosemite Museum of a bear in the snow.


Recent tracks of several bears still active in Yosemite Valley despite winter storms.

The Scoop on Bear Poop

Scat (Photo: NPS)


Grass scat (Photo: NPS)

Black bears are omnivores and eat a wide range of foods including grass, roots, fruit, insects, fish, and animal carcasses. Their digestive system is similar to a human’s; they have a stomach and a small and large intestine. Some things will digest in the bear’s stomach and won’t be visible in the scat, while other things, like apple peels, seeds, fur, and bones will be present in the poop. Black bear poop can take on many shapes. The color and composition of their poop will change with the seasons, as does their diet. In the spring, bears eat a lot of grass and insects, so their poop is often green and tubular, with grass visible. In the late summer and fall, bear poop will be looser and in large plops, with berries and apple pieces visible. 

Berry scat (Photo: NPS)


Scat (Photo: NPS)

Well, now that you’ve got the data on the scat-a, go out and find some bear poop!

Yosemite National Park Designates Wildlife Protection Zones Throughout the Park

This image shows one of Yosemite National Park’s newly designated Wildlife Protection Zones and the associated sign that motorists will see along roadways while driving through Wildlife Protection Zones in Yosemite National Park. NPS Photo.

Speed Enforcement in Effect to Help Protect Bears and Other Wildlife

In preparation for a busy Labor Day Weekend, Yosemite National Park has designated several new Wildlife Protection Zones located on stretches of roadway throughout the Park where bears and other animals have been hit by vehicles. Visitors driving in the park this weekend will see new signs advising motorists that you are in a “Wildlife Protection Zone” and that speed limits will be strictly enforced. Multiple zones have been designated in Yosemite Valley and along sections of Big Oak Flat Road, El Portal Road, Wawona Road and Tioga Road. These zones will remain in effect until further notice.

As of August 28, 2019, 11 bears have been hit by vehicles during the 2019 calendar year. More than 400 bears have been hit by vehicles in Yosemite National Park since 1995. It’s not just bears that face the danger of being hit by a vehicle on roads within Yosemite National Park. Owls, Pacific fishers, butterflies, rare amphibians like red-legged frogs and salamanders; and mammals like deer, foxes, and mountain lions are also often hit and killed on Yosemite’s roads.

“One of the best ways to help protect wildlife in Yosemite National Park is to slow down and follow the posted speed limits within the park,” stated Yosemite National Park Superintendent Michael Reynolds. “These new Wildlife Protection Zones have been designated to help reduce the number of animals injured or killed in the park by automobiles. We thank park visitors for helping us protect Yosemite’s bears and other wildlife.”

How can park visitors help protect wildlife while driving in and around Yosemite National Park? Please stay alert, especially while driving during dawn and dusk, when animals are more active. Scan roadsides for wildlife in front of your car and obey posted speed limit signs including areas with reduced speeds. These small actions can help make a big difference and help prevent wildlife-automobile collisions.


Editor’s Note: The attached photo is an NPS Photo and may be published in print and electronic media. Please list the photo credit as “NPS Photo.”

Media Contacts:
Scott Gediman 209-372-0248
Jamie Richards 209-372-0529

How Old is That Bear?

One of the most common questions we get when visitors see a bear in Yosemite is, “How old is that bear?” Knowing a bear’s age can help us understand a lot about its behavior and how to manage it. If a bear has been managed since it was young, we know exactly how old it is. If bears are first captured when they are older, biologists use tooth wear as an indication of a bear’s age. Determining if the canine teeth are worn, the level of wear on the incisors, and the presence or absence of dentine spots, all place the bear into a certain age category.  Bears are classified as either a cub (<1), yearling (1), sub-adult (2-3), new adult (4-7), middle-aged adult (8-15), or old adult (16+). 

Bears are omnivores and eat both plants and meat, and their jaws are a combination of sharp canines and flat molars. From chewing grass, to cracking acorns, to eating carrion, a bear’s teeth are essential to their survival. As a bear ages, their teeth become worn down, rounded, and discolored. 


Young bears, like yearlings, have no dentine spots. Teeth are white and canines are sharp and pointed. Photo: NPS


Older bears, like the this adult female captured in November 2018, have yellowing teeth and rounded canines.  She is currently the oldest known tagged bear in the park at 21 years old. Photo: NPS

This bear still shows signs of good health despite her tooth wear and has been denning since December 2018. Worn teeth make it increasingly difficult for a bear to chew natural foods, and can lead to conflict with humans if a bear obtains human food that can give a bear a much easier intake of calories. 

You can help us keep these and other wildlife wild and healthy by always keeping your food stored properly when in bear habitat and respecting all wildlife by keeping your distance.


Photo: Josh Helling




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Empty Yosemite – Bears Take Back Yosemite Valley During the Ferguson Fire

Empty Yosemite – Bears Take Back Yosemite Valley During the Ferguson Fire

On July 13, 2018, the Ferguson Fire started in the Merced River Canyon just west of Yosemite National Park. At the time the fire started, the park was experiencing peak season visitation and biologists were monitoring up to 20 different bears foraging naturally in Yosemite Valley on a daily basis. Yosemite Valley and some other areas closed to visitors from July 25 to August 14 due to health and safety concerns. Employees and residents were also evacuated for part of that time, leaving only firefighters and emergency personnel behind. Consequently, Yosemite Valley was unusually empty and exceptionally quiet. As a result, bears immediately began frequenting many areas normally teeming with people during bustling summer days. 

Black bears are naturally curious, but shy away from people. They generally use corridors of forest cover to make loops around their home ranges in Yosemite Valley while searching for food. As opportunistic omnivores, they prefer food sources that are readily accessible and away from busy human developments. Even food conditioned bears prefer to use the cover of night and forest to enter heavily populated areas. 

During the closure of Yosemite Valley, bears spent more time in developed areas in search of natural food sources. In the absence of park visitors, they boldly crossed roads, bike paths, and walked through empty campgrounds, parking lots, and through other areas that are typically swarming with people. Bears took advantage of the historic apple orchards, gorging themselves on apples. The Majestic Yosemite Hotel (formerly The Ahwahnee) lawn, usually filled with visitors picnicking , wedding parties and kids playing was now instead the location two male bears chose to play together, grazing on the grounds.


Bear at the Majestic Yosemite Hotel (Photo: Dakota Snider)

This behavior gives biologists a glimpse into a more wild Yosemite Valley when it was only sparsely populated and much less visited. A time when black bears and other wildlife were able to chose the path of least resistance, instead of the path of least population to obtain natural food sources such as fruits, insects, acorns, and grasses.


GPS tracks showing bears in Yosemite Valley during the Ferguson Fire