Glacier National Park – Hey Security, There’s a Bear Out There!

The girl came rushing up to the picnic table by the employee dining room where I was standing.

“There’s a bear in the brush over there! We could see it from the dining room!”

She rushed off into the building, other employees hurriedly following her.

I stood on the picnic table’s bench to get a better vantage point and scanned the woods but I could initially see and hear nothing. Maybe the bear was just passing through.

Finally…

<crunch, crunch>

A-ha! A black bear came casually sauntering out of the brush into a clear area.

Myself and a nearby maintenance worker climbed onto the picnic table’s top to see better.

“HEY BEAR, HEY BEAR! GO ON NOW!” We clapped, stomped and shouted at the bear to try to scare it away.

My radio crackled and beeped. “Hey security, a bear has been spotted down by the restaurant!”

“10-4. I’m there now. I’m staying out here to keep the guests back.”

The bear crouched like a puppy and put its head between its paws and snorfled, clearly not wishing to ‘go on, now!”

It casually sauntered back into the brush, weaving in and out of sight.

I moved to get a better view of where the critter was and to keep the gathering, interested guests up on the pavement and back away from the bear. One guest had grabbed their camera and proceeded down the bank after the bear, snapping pictures and ignoring my instructions to not try to get close!

Traffic, spotting the bear, began to pile up on the road.

A green and white Park Service truck made an appearance on the road in the midst of the other gawking vehicles. He sounded his siren briefly but the bear wasn’t impressed.

The Park Ranger pulled in to the lot. I went to talk to him, he introduced himself. I told him the bear seemed pretty unfazed by our efforts to chase it off and that I also had a guest who wasn’t listening to instructions. The Ranger donned an orange vest and grabbed a shotgun and loaded it with rubber bullets. He radioed in that he was dealing with a ‘bear jam’ and a crowd.

He went to first have a chat with the photo-op guest, then proceeded into the brush after the bear. I spotted 2 guests in the distance heading off also into the brush after the bear and I hollered at them to not go in there!

They immediately turned around. They later thanked me, telling me they were thinking it was something else and not a bear!

The ranger lost sight of the dark, shaggy critter. It’s believed that he finally crossed the road and left the property.

The caution with this bear is that it was apparently not much frightened by all the ruckus. In an altercation or attack involving people, the bear could be destroyed. (It’s the way it’s done regardless of one’s feelings on it.) We don’t want that, hence trying to discourage bears from certain areas with rubber bullets. Guests can invite attacks and the desensitizing of bears by not keeping a distance.