An aggressive bear, protecting her cubs, had killed a camper from Michigan and injured two others. My friends and I, being teenage boys, chuckled over the execution headline, imagining a teary-eyed grizzly and its cubs being led up to the gallows as the hangman read a list of their heinous crimes to society.
Executing bears, I argued, seemed like a ridiculous solution to a solvable problem. After all, man enters the wilderness fully aware of risks like bears, and we encroach on bear territory. So why was the bear at fault for trying to survive in its changing habitat?
A mustached man sitting with his family at a neighboring table interrupted with a contradictory opinion: He and his family were all for the execution of the bear because one of those injured at Yellowstone was his son.
The Alamosa native and student at the University of Colorado Denver had been camping in Yellowstone for the weekend. He was asleep in his tent, without any food or drink inside to bait hungry predators, when the bear approached, ripped apart the tent, and bit the man in the calf. His first defensive instinct was to deal the bear a nasty punch to the nose, causing the disgruntled animal to hobble off in search of others.
I emerged from the restaurant flabbergasted by this gruesome tale and by the chance meeting with the victim’s father, but I still had mixed feelings about the attack itself. I had originally sympathized with the bear and her cubs, who were only trying to survive, but afterward, I grew to sympathize with the victims of the attack, who had done nothing wrong.
I thought I had made a valid point before the victim’s father talked to me. As people expand further across the planet, with urban centers engulfing former wildernesses, they reduce animal habitats and restrict their right to live freely. Labeling the local wildlife as threats and exterminating them is a destructive alternative to peaceful co-existence.
Mine was a strong opinion that any wannabe tree-hugger like myself could adopt. I live in Denver, an urban center where the biggest predators are coyotes that you can scare away if you’re over 4 feet tall or can scream like a little girl. However, “peaceful co-existence” in the wilderness isn’t always as easy.
For those who live on the outskirts of cities or right in the wild, nature isn’t so warm and cuddly. Predators like bears, mountain lions and wolves are real threats that impair people’s safety, so while it would be wrong to exterminate them entirely to make way for the humans, it would be naïve to think nothing of it, say “bears will be bears,” and let them maul our children for an afternoon snack.
The killer bear was sentenced to death not only because it was an overly aggressive danger to campers, but also because it was a bad role model for its cubs. If mother bear attacks a human, her baby bears will see it as normal bear behavior and go find other backpackers. Sadly, this is why the innocent cubs had to be put down along with their mother.
Still, it is far from naïve to consider peaceful co-existence a legitimate possibility. Aggressive predators make co-existence difficult, but we cannot pile all of the blame onto the bears. We must take responsibility to stem bear aggression and help keep them in their own natural habitat.
Bears become less afraid of humans and more willing to attack when they’re around humans frequently, so if we give bears less reason to wander into towns — while preserving ample territory for them to live in — they become less of a threat. Simple steps toward safety include keeping garbage and human food secure; getting rid of bird feeders, which can easily become bear feeders and endanger a community; grilling all excess food off of barbecues; and avoiding growing berries in backyards.
I was wrong to laugh at the execution of a killer bear. Man must take the responsibility to keep bears and people in separate spheres on the same globe. If we keep human habitat distinct from bear habitat, we will get closer to co-existing with predators.
Kerry Martin (kerrywmartin@msn.com) of Greenwood Village is an incoming senior at Cherry Creek High School.
