Stop euthanizing the Endangered Black Bear species in order to profit off of tourism.
Why is this important?
While visiting Yosemite National Park, I was taken on a bus tour, in which the ranger stated they just put down a 16 year old female Black Bear for getting too close to the camp sites. Black Bears are on the endangered species list. They are not known to harm humans, and rely on grubs, berries, and shrubs for their diets. The park will put down the Black Bears they think try to open the Bear Lockers to get food. If the camper locks their lockers appropriately there should be no problem with the bears. The euthanization of this bear took place even though the bear did not harm any human.
Currently their are only 300-500 Black Bears in Yosemite's 750,000 acres of land. Please find an alternate solution to killing this small number of bears. Please find a way to relocate them, instead of killing them for using their natural insticts to go towards the smell of food.
This is a direct quote from the Yosemite website "The average lifespan for Yosemite 's black bears is 18 years. Main causes of death are vehicle accidents, disease, old age, and being put down when becoming too habituated and aggressive towards human food. Please be aware and properly store your food, this will save Yosemite's bears lives. "
I believe the park has a responsibility to find a more humane way to deal with this situation since they make so much money off of what the park ranger claimed to be 4 million tourists a year.
