Goldilocks and the Three Black Bears?

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Created on Thursday, 30 June 2011 15:06

Published on Thursday, 30 June 2011 15:06

Written by Abe Connally

Not to scare anyone off, but black bears are a common enough sighting in the Big Bend area. This last week, park officials had an interesting run-in with some of them, and the experience could be worrisome for park biologists.

A sow and her two 18-month-old cubs like to hang out around the Lost Mine Trail. Last week, they were seen in the area, and everything appeared perfectly normal, but on Friday, workers at the lodge found the mother lying down behind a maintenance barn.

The workers assumed the worse, imagining that the mother was dying. And though you can be assured that no person or animal dies in this story, the sow was indeed in distress. She was weak, and eventually able to carry herself a small distance before lying down again. The cubs stayed around her.

At this point the rangers were in an interesting situation. In National Parks, the policy is to ALWAYS let nature run its course, no matter what. That means that the land is intentionally left to the wildlife to live without human intervention, but it also means that if an animal looks to be dying, no one calls a vet.

However, because the rangers were not sure of the cause of the sudden illness of this sow, they decided to put out some water for the three bears. They drank, and later disappeared into the wild once again. They have been seen since, and the mother appears healthier than on Friday.

In harmony with our post entitled “We Need Rain!”, this story illustrates the dire situation many animals are in. When a drought comes, we often think about the ranchers and farmers first, knowing that their crops will suffer and that the ranchers are loosing money to keep their animals alive. But the wildlife suffers, too, as we see with this black bear family. There is little to eat in the park right now, and every bird, mammal, and reptile in the region will certainly thrive when the rains come and everything greens up—if they can hold on until then.

A Note about Bears and Safety

If you’re like half of the people in this world, when you hear about bears in Big Bend, you want to know if it will be safe to camp there with such ‘dangerous animals’ around. The other half of people gets excited, wondering if they can get a picture with a real black bear. Both these reactions are either unnecessary or dangerous.

If you’re worried about bear safety, keep in mind that the vast majority of bear injuries result from the people who want to get a picture with the bears or touch them. If you see a wild animal in the park that may be dangerous, or the offspring of such an animal, please resist the urge to pet, feed, or approach it. If you stay away, observe only from safe distances, and ALWAYS follow park officials’ instructions, you’ll be safe. Scout’s honor.

This week’s story first appeared in Big Bend Now, a great news site for the park. We must give credit where credit is due.

An remember, rain or shine, this summer will be a great time to visit Big Bend because of these great summer savings!