About 40 years ago, I was privileged to be given a guided tour, so to speak=
,
of the scenery and the management problems of Yellowstone National Park. (=
I
was then a N P administrator here in Australia).
Inevitably we came up to a 'bear-jam' - a traffic jam caused by a begging
bear. A line-up of stationary cars and the bear worked its way along the
line, stopping at each one to put its fore-paws on the side of the vehicle
and to gaze at the occupants in the hope of finding someone who would ignor=
e
the advice (regulation?) not to feed the bears.
Comes to the car I was in and it just stalks past, completely ignoring us.
Did it recognise the Park Service vehicle and know there'd be no hand-out
there? I've always wondered.
Syd Curtis
(Brisbane, Australia)
[BTW - I should add, for the benefit of other non-Americans like myself,
that not too long after my visit, the Park Service gave up as hopeless,
trying to educate park visitors not to feed the bears, and concentrated on
'educating' the bears.]
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