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Watch As 'clueless' Tourists Crowd Mama Grizzly And Cubs In Yellowstone National Park

A new video shows tourists getting way too close to potentially dangerous wildlife in Yellowstone National Park, becoming the latest example of risky wildlife encounters in national parks this summer.

This time, tourists are shown crowding around one of the most powerful and unpredictable predators — a mama grizzly and her cubs.

The video, which was posted to the @TouronsofYellowstone Instagram account, shows a huge crowd of spectators, including parents with their kids, gathered around the bear family as it ventures through a field near Grand Prismatic Spring, according to the caption on the video.

"Momma grizzly and her two 2 year old cubs…told people to leave and no one moved," the caption on the Aug. 4 video says. "I tried my best to get them away but man these people were clueless. We eventually had to bail but they were getting even closer as I left."

Luckily, no one appears to get hurt in the video. But commentary about the video suggests it could have ended much differently — with the bears paying the price for the tourist's behavior.

"Closing in on them is inviting an attack," someone said. "Such an event would lead to the extermination of the mother and leave the cubs helpless."

The person pleaded for visitors to respect wild animals, their habitats and their territory in the park. "It is a mother grizzly with her cubs," they added. "This is not a zoo."

Others agreed.

"What's sad is that if the mom attacked she'd be put down," someone else said. "These people don't know the consequences of what they're doing."

Visitors should always stay 100 yards away from bears and wolves, and at least 25 yards — about the length of two buses — away from all other wildlife, including bison and elk, the National Park Service website says.

Officials recommend viewing wildlife from the safety of a car using binoculars and/or telephoto lenses — not approaching to get a good photo with a smartphone.

"The animals in Yellowstone are wild and unpredictable, no matter how calm they appear to be," officials said. "Every year people are injured when they approach animals too closely. Animals that attack people may need to be killed."

Photos, videos and news stories of people getting too close to dangerous wildlife or natural features in national parks /have/ "skyrocketed this summer," KBZK reported.

Although the National Park Service does not track these incidents, a West Yellowstone tour guide told the station he's seen tourist behavior get worse in the last few years, and he thinks social media may be partly to blame.

"We're seeing people being more brazen," Larry Bloomfield told the station. "They're getting out and doing more to try and make a statement: 'I got away with this. I think this was great. See what I did.'"

Tourist wanders off trail into Yellowstone hot spring, rangers say. Now he's charged

Tourists grab baby elk, put it in car and go to police station, Yellowstone rangers say

Bison calf killed after man tried to 'help' it, Yellowstone rangers say. He'll pay up

National Parks Are In Climate Distress. This Law Is One Step Toward A Solution.

A year after its passage, 2022's Inflation Reduction Act remains a historic climate investment in national parks. It can't be the only one. 

Sunset over Javelina Rocks at Saguaro National Park, where the survival of the park's namesake cacti is threatened by climate change.

  © Miroslav Liska/Dreamstime

Thanks to NPCA members and supporters who wrote thousands of messages to their elected officials, the historic Inflation Reduction Act passed a year ago this week, giving us all cause for celebration.

The act also gives Americans hope for the future and the promise of climate-conscious projects that safeguard our parks from extreme weather, natural disasters and the inevitable long-term challenges of climate change.

Floods washed out the North Entrance Road to Yellowstone on June 13, 2022, among the miles of roadways that were damaged or destroyed.

  Jacob W. Frank/National Park Service How does the Inflation Reduction Act help national parks and the communities that rely on them?

Passed in August 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act set aside $700 million for infrastructure projects to help parks face the new climate reality. While last summer brought floods to Yellowstone, historic drought at Lake Mead and fires that burned Yosemite's beloved sequoias, this summer has demonstrated that climate change continues to plague the world in new and unpredictable ways.

heat sign in Death Valley

A heat warning sign on Golden Canyon trail in Death Valley National Park.  

NPS / K. Ross

The Park Service works to keep national parks safe and enjoyable, despite operating on a limited budget and with dwindling staff numbers. Last August, the country moved forward with a huge part of the solution: The Inflation Reduction Act remains the largest investment our country has made in national parks to meet the challenges of climate change. And that means investments in the places we love and cherish, as well as the communities who rely on them for solace in nature and economic prosperity.

This funding will contribute both to ecosystem restoration and conservation projects, as well as staffing across national parks.

How will the federal government allocate this funding?

On Aug. 8 of this year, the federal government announced the first round of IRA-funded projects, which span from Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska to Biscayne National Park in Florida. In addition to infrastructure, the Inflation Reduction Act allocates funding for new positions for national park employees. The distribution of $44 million for park projects includes:

$1 million to restore the shortgrass prairie sagebrush and Mesquite Bosque ecosystems in Western parks, and $750, 000 to restore federally threatened whitebark pine, also across Western parks, including Grand Teton National Park.

$203,000 to implement coral reef stewardship in six parks in Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands, including Biscayne National Park, where climate change has set record-breaking water temperatures, bleaching coral reefs and killing marine life.

(1)

A scientist studies coral at Virgin Islands National Park. 

  NPS Climate Change Response (2)

Leigh Lake at Grand Teton National Park.

  © Rockworth/Dreamstime.

$8 million to restore aquatic ecosystems to prepare for climate impacts on wildlife, including at Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve.

$750,000 to assess and treat cultural resources threatened by climate change in Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.

Over $2 million for mining cleanup, including $120,000 to monitor and rehabilitate former mines in Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area and $300,000 for the National Park Service to develop a database to document abandoned mines on park lands.

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Climate change is visibly affecting the landscape at Glacier National Park.

  Galyna AndrushkoShutterstock.Com (2)

Lower Fox Creek Schoolhouse is among cultural resources at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.

  ©Weldon Schloneger/Dreamstime How do these projects help national parks?

National parks, public lands and waterways are among our country's best defenses against climate disasters. The Inflation Reduction Act sets aside much-needed funding for parks to build green infrastructure such as those listed above, which help parks withstand the extreme heat and drier, hotter conditions in the West and the wetter conditions in the East.

Nature-based solutions such as wetlands and other green infrastructure filter pollutants and provide flood and storm protection. Protected freshwater and marine areas better adapt to warming temperatures and rising waters. And, connected and expanded landscapes allow wildlife to safely migrate between national parks and adjacent lands to ensure populations can adapt and survive.

Flooding damaged Scotty's Castle in 2015, and a fire destroyed one of the outbuildings in 2021. Rangers stand near the burned remnants of the castle's historic garage. The main house, in the distance, was not damaged by the fire.

  National Park Service

We must equip park personnel with the necessary funds not only to recover from climate disasters, but to look forward to projects and initiatives that support the parks we know and love so they can thrive for future generations.

The good news is that the public is aware of climate change and how we tackle the issue: A January 2022 national poll by NPCA found that a strong bipartisan majority of Americans see parks as part of the solution to address climate change. And 83% of Americans, regardless of political affiliation, would be likely to support representatives in Congress who act to reduce the impact of climate change on national parks. A majority of Americans support the Inflation Reduction Act because it better equips the National Park Service to handle the effects of climate change on our national parks and cultural resources.

Why do parks need funding like the Inflation Reduction Act?

Coastal erosion leads to collapsing homes near Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The result: dangerous debris fields along the shoreline. 

  NPS

Right now, national parks face a challenge unlike any they have faced before. Climate change continues to surprise scientists in its severity and speed. With the Earth warming a predicted 1.5 degrees Celsius over the next 20 years, we cannot predict how severe or frequent climate disasters will be for national parks. In fact, just in the past decade, we have experienced unusual weather events that mark an unprecedented future for our most treasured lands.

In a December 2022 poll, NPCA found that a total of 73% of Americans believe national parks need better infrastructure that protects against such impacts of climate change. The IRA funding for parks is an answer to that call.

How do Americans feel about the Inflation Reduction Act?

That same December 2022 poll by NPCA found that a total of 79% of Americans support funding the National Park Service to rebuild green infrastructure — in other words, restoring wildlife habitat, improving controls for pollution runoff and making other changes that strengthen parks against climate impacts.

Three in four Americans believe that climate change has already had a negative impact on national parks. About just as many Americans believe national parks need better infrastructure that protects against the impacts of climate change.

How has NPCA supported this bill?

Damage from Hurricane Sandy at Assateague Island National Seashore.  

  NPS Climate Change Reponse

Alongside millions of concerned Americans, NPCA has long pressed Congress for climate action. We've sent letters and policy priorities and spent hours meeting with House and Senate offices. This historic legislation is a necessary and essential step forward to meet the needs of people everywhere who have told their representatives that we need to act on the climate crisis now.

Ultimately, though, the IRA is a first step among many we must take as a country to help our national parks survive for future generations. Without more supportive funding directed toward climate adaptation, parks will continue to suffer immensely, harming communities and the visitor experience.

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National Parks Support Wildlife Inside And Outside Their Borders

Scientists have long assumed that national parks help conserve wildlife and protect biodiversity. But is that truly the case?

Fresh research from the University of Montana, international partners and NASA-affiliated scientists suggests that parks do indeed enhance bird diversity inside their borders. Large parks also support higher diversity of both birds and mammals in nearby unprotected areas.

The research was published Aug. 23 in Nature.

"We knew that protected areas can reduce logging -- you can see that from satellite imagery -- but you can't see the animals in the forest from space," said the study's lead author Dr. Jedediah Brodie, the UM Craighead Chair of Conservation. "Our new analysis shows that parks benefit forest wildlife, too."

Brodie also is a Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Malaysia) research fellow. He said that some scientists have argued that conservation success inside some parks can come at the expense of neighbouring unprotected habitats -- that parks displace extractive impacts like hunting, fishing and logging to other nearby areas.

But on the other hand, marine parks often report biodiversity "spillover," meaning that species protected within park boundaries produce an abundance of eggs, larvae and adults that then disperse and increase the biodiversity in surrounding habitats.

"So the question is, 'Do terrestrial land parks displace biodiversity losses or provide biodiversity spillover?'" Brodie said.

The new study recruited scientists from 10 countries to conduct a comprehensive analysis of bird and mammal diversity inside and outside of parks across Southeast Asia, one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth. The scientists compiled a massive database of bird and mammal observations across the region that demonstrated the protective features of national parks.

Brodie said the findings are especially timely for the United Nations, which recently announced ambitious biodiversity conservation targets that include significant expansions of global protected areas. The UN strategy is to conserve 30% of Earth's lands and waters by 2030, the so-called "30 by 30 goal."

"Massive expansions to global protected area coverage will be difficult and expensive, but our results show that it's worth it," Brodie said.

Indeed, the work provides clear justification to designate protected areas that are as large as possible, as larger parks had significantly stronger influence on mammal diversity in the surrounding landscape. Recent work in the region suggests that some wildlife species are persisting in small parks, but this apparently doesn't scale up to such areas having landscape-scale "spillover" effects.

The time to move forward with protected area expansion is now, said co-author Professor Mohd-Azlan Jayasilan of the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak.

"If governments responsible for gazetting protected areas think that it is difficult to protect large areas now, it's simply going to get more difficult with exasperating socio-political setbacks in the future," Jayasilan said.

"Not all parks are equal," said co-author Dr. Mairin Deith of the University of British Columbia, Canada. "Larger parks routinely had higher bird diversity. Considering the UN's goal of increasing protected area to 30% of the world's surface, these findings support the creation of fewer larger parks compared to many smaller ones, where it is possible to do so."

At the same time, she said, there might be other invisible social forces researchers couldn't see from their dataset that may be related to park size, such as differences in funding, enforcement and local buy-in to protections.

Hunting is a key concern for Southeast Asian wildlife conservation and a prime suspect for why diversity has often been assumed to decline outside of parks. Hunters are mobile, so hunting bans within park boundaries may only displace these activities to nearby unprotected areas and undermine their net benefit.

"To be honest, I was surprised that mammal diversity was higher outside large parks," said co-author Dr. Matthew Luskin of the University of Queensland, Australia. "It's common to see hunters inside and outside of parks in many countries. I expected that hunters' selectively removing game animals would reduce diversity. However, it appears parks limit hunting so it does not drive complete extirpations in most cases."

NASA's Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation operates a near-infrared laser instrument on the International Space Station, providing vertical information on forest structure that the study used in its analysis. Co-author Scott Goetz of Northern Arizona University noted that "while satellite monitoring of forest cover is essential for tracking deforestation, the unique data provided by GEDI allows us to go beyond cover and get at the structural diversity and habitat heterogeneity of forests, which is important for biodiversity."

Co-author James Ball of the University of Cambridge said, "Integrating NASA's GEDI data into this analysis allowed us to control for 3D forest structure in a way that simply wasn't possible a few years ago. This reassures us that the results hold across different forest types."

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