As more people move into the West, interactions between humans and bears have increased. Now Yellowstone National Park is asking visitors to help save bears by honking at them.
Visitors to the nation鈥檚 oldest national park aren鈥檛 treating bruins like the wild and potentially dangerous animals they can be.
In fact, some people are feeding bears from their cars.
鈥淎 fed bear is basically a dead bear,鈥� said Yellowstone spokesperson Morgan Warthin.
She is asking visitors to scare those hungry bears away by honking at them and then driving off.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a deterrent,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f you honk your horn, then the bear reacts to that and will likely move away from the vehicle. And it teaches the bear that they鈥檙e not going to get anything.鈥�
Warthin said they鈥檝e had three instances over the past month of people giving food to bears. There鈥檚 also been a couple of tramplings by elk and a California woman got gored by a bison.
Last month was Yellowstone鈥檚 busiest May on record. The park is struggling with ways to control the millions of people visiting there every year.
This story was produced by the Mountain West 暗黑爆料 Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, Yellowstone Public Radio in Montana, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.
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