techniques—yelling at her,hitting her
withoilpellets fromapaintballgun,set-
tingoffspecializednoisemakers—which
escalatedependingonherpersistence,to
scareherback into thewild.
Lest you think that scene is cruel,
consider what was once the all-too-
common alternative here: The bear
gets comfortable around people and
gainsaccess tohuman food that’s tasty,
highly caloric, and much easier to
attain than berries and insects,which
could take up to a day to forage for.
So she concentrates all her wiles and
muscleongettingmoreof the former.
She breaks into houses to feast in the
kitchen,peels open car doors like sar-
dine canswhen she catches awhiff of
a candybar in theglove compartment
or a strayMcDonald’s fry under the
seat. Eventually, she may lash out at
humanswho stand inherway.
A bear that becomes “food-
conditioned,”aswildlife biologists call
it, is unlikely to be cured. Bears have
traveled hundreds of miles to return
to a source of human food after being
relocated, and they teach their cubs
to replicate that behavior. Sooner
or later, that bear likely will need to
be euthanized.
“It’s theworstdayyouwill everhave
doing this job,”saysLaurenFanucchi,
another Yosemite biological science
technician. “We spend a long, long
time working with these bears and
doing our best to educate the public
and doing everythingwe can to keep
themwild.When it crosses thatpoint,
and we have to euthanize them, it’s
awful. It’s our failure.”
Our bear, in addition to all that
tracking hardware, is adornedwith a
greenplastic tagwith a bold black “7”
protruding fromherear.Green-7.It’sa
randomdesignation,acolor andnum-
ber combination that isn’t being used
onother taggedbears roaming thepark
andaneasyway for thosewhoseeher to
tellWildlifeManagementwhichbear
they saw.
That’s how, forevermore, she’ll be
known. But if Leahy and his staff
do their jobs
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