Monday, March 27, 2023

Comparing UFOS to Grizzly Bears made me think of a real life encounter with a Grizzly bear in Yellowstone National park

This likely was around 2010 and my wife and youngest daughter and I were traveling in our motor home from California across country and had met friends in Wyoming and had camped with them there and stayed in Jackson, Wyoming and then visited our friends on property they owned in Montana too.

We were driving through Yellowstone and heading out at this point to Cody Wyoming because I had never been to Cody before so for me it was sort of like going to another planet or something at that point. I remember feeling I had been traveling to far and too long and trying to get used to being in Cody then.

But, before we went into Cody a lot of people were stopped along the road in Yellowstone national park. I asked someone what was happening and they said a Grizzly bear was nearby. I had never been up close to a grizzly bear before so I got out and left my wife and daughter in our motor home. There was a Forest Ranger guarding the bear so he wouldn't maul someone if they got too close. The behavior of a bear often is like a really big wild dog, very similar. This one was eating flowers (sort of like a 1960s flower child) in the summer (spring like weather there then) and seemed to be having a very blissful day eating flowers and laying on the ground. He didn't seem to care of people were looking at him or not as long as they stayed far enough away. But, some idiot got too close and so the Ranger Arrested him to save his life. There's always someone ignorant of bear behavior doing stuff like this.

I also remember being 14 and people feeding Grizzlies out of their car windows. But, realistically that is insane because often they will just rip your car door off to get at your food if you do this so this is why doing this is insane. Your car is not going to protect you from a grizzly if they sense food in your car and they want it. The only way to protect yourself would be to drive away from them.

So, Rangers made it illegal eventually to feed bears from vehicles in order to keep more tourists alive in Yellowstone over the years. 

However, it isn't grizzlies that kill the most people it's Buffalo. Buffalo are herd animals and generally don't run away but will kill you if you they are males and you get too close to them or to the herd. They will knock you down with their horns and stomp on your head and chest until you stop moving and are dead. This is how tourists often die in Yellowstone National Park.

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