Yosemite park ranger shares story of mother bear mourning over cub hit by car
YOSEMITE VILLAGE, Calif. (KRDO) -- A park ranger with Yosemite National Park shared their sobering experience dealing with a grieving mother bear whose cub was hit and killed by a car.
The ranger describes getting the call of a "bear hit by vehicle, dead on the side of the road," on July 16. They head to that area and begin scanning the road. According to the ranger, their job is to move the body, fill out a report, collect samples, and add the animal to the list of bears hit by vehicles this year.
After searching for a while, the ranger finds the bear lying in an embankment on the side of the road.
"A cub. Its tiny light brown body laying just feet from me and the road, nearly invisible to every passerby. It’s a new cub—couldn’t be much more than six months old, now balled up and lifeless under a small pine tree. For a moment I lose track of time as I stand there staring at its tiny body, but then the sound of more cars whizzing by reminds me of my place and my role"
The ranger proceeds to pick up the cub, saying it couldn't have weighed more than 25 pounds, and begin carrying it further into the woods.
"I have no certain destination; I’m just walking until I can no longer hear the hiss of the road behind me. I see a grassy spot surrounded by a semi-ring of down logs and gravitate towards it. The least I can do is find it a nice place to be laid."
They then begin assessing the bear, discovering it's a female. While wondering the kind of life the cub might've led had it not been killed, the ranger notices another bear in the distance. The ranger manages to scare the bear off. Once the other bear is gone, they continue working.
Initially, the ranger writes how they thought the bear was coming to scavenge the remains of the cub. It isn't until the ranger hears what's described as a "deep-toned but soft-sounding grunt" do they realize what the other bear is.
"I turn and look in its direction and there she is, the same bear from before intently staring back at me. It’s no coincidence. I can feel the callousness drain from my body. This bear is the mom, and she never left her cub."
The call originally came in around noon, and by the time the ranger found the cub it was well after 5 p.m. They realize the mother bear had stayed with the body of her cub this entire time.
"My heart sinks. It’s been nearly six hours and she still hasn’t given up on her cub. I can just imagine how many times she darted back and forth on that road in attempts to wake it. It's extremely lucky that she wasn't hit as well. The calls to the cub continue, sounding more pained each time. I glance back finding myself hoping it would respond to her call too, but of course, nothing. Now here I am, standing between a grieving mother and her child. I feel like a monster."
Despite not finishing the assessment, the ranger decides to leave. But before leaving, they set up a remote camera, which later captures the mother bear standing near the body of her lifeless cub.
"Every year we report the number of bears that get hit by vehicles, but numbers don’t always paint a picture. I want people to see what I saw: the sad reality behind each of these numbers."
The ranger ends the story with a reminder to people traveling through Yosemite National Park that they are visitors in the home of countless animals, and it's up to them to follow the rules that protect the wildlife.
"Go the speed limit, drive alertly, and look out for wildlife. Protecting Yosemite’s black bears is something we can all do."
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