Bears are ‘having a party’ without humans around at Yosemite National Park due to coronavirus

A black bear in Yosemite National Park, Calif.
A black bear in Yosemite National Park, Calif.(AP)

Bears and other animals at Yosemite National Park seem to be enjoying themselves in the absence of humans amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The sprawling park in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California has been closed to people since March 20 in response to the outbreak of COVID-19.
The lack of humans has allowed bears to roam freely, one of the park’s rangers said during a recent Facebook Live conversation.
“We’ve been getting a lot of questions, actually, about what are the animals doing since the park has been closed? For the most part, I think they’re having a party,” Ranger Katie said during Sunday’s live stream.
“This time is difficult for the animals here," she explained. "There can be literally walls of cars, stop-and-go traffic, or people in the park, and so for the bears, they normally have to pick these little corridors that they have to move through in the valley to get from Point A to Point B.”
A recent video shared on the park’s Instagram page shows a bear grazing on grass near the Yosemite Village. The post notes that the bears “have been actively lately” in the park’s Yosemite Valley area.
The park says approximately 300 to 500 black bears call Yosemite home.

“Now that there are no people, the bears are just literally walking down the road to get to where they need to go, which is kind of cool to see," said Ranger Katie, who has worked with the black bears in the park for more than a decade.

Yosemite National Park says it does not have an estimated date for reopening.

3 comments:

  1. I learned from cartoons that bears like pick a nick baskets and big cats like tuna sandwiches...

    ReplyDelete
  2. That black bear looks very light brown. And where's the party hat and the martini?

    ReplyDelete

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