Camping in Yosemite Valley, unlike the rest of the park, has certain unique factors. Namely the fact that humans and bears have been interacting for far, far too long. This has left the resident bear population very accustomed to seeing humans as a food source, leading to a nightly contest between ranger and bear. Bears wander through the campgrounds looking for easy Snickers bars, rangers chase them off hoping they’ll go back to eating berries.
Anyone who thinks that bears are just dumb, aggressive animals could not be further from the truth. Currently, all food has to be stored in large bear-boxes at each campsite. Why? Because they’ve been known to get into cars, bear-proof garbage cans, even take running leaps from nearby boulders and stand on each others backs to reach food hanging from trees.
And now, this, seen this morning on Salon.com:
For Yosemite bears, dinner arrives in a minivan
What’s bigger than a picnic basket and even better than one in the eyes of black bears that live in Yosemite National Park? A study published this month in the Journal of Mammalogy says it’s minivans driven by families with children who leave behind a trail of spilled juice boxes, Cheerios and coolers carrying other snacks.
Park scientists have found that the bears tore up minivans more frequently than other types of vehicles. It found that minivans represented 29 percent of the 908 vehicles torn into by bears between 2001 and 2007, even though they made up just 7 percent of the cars that visited Yosemite.
The researchers investigated the relationship after noticing that bears seemed to target that particular vehicle type.
The GeekHiker 
So the question is are minivan riders prone to behaviors that encourage bear response (eg the coating of juicy fingerprints on door handles, children running around)
OR are have the bears learned that minivan=snack.
The quote implies that bears have learned the meaning of correlation. Or simply that humans can’t distinguish between causation and correlation??
A good experiment would be four cars:
1) Minivan, uber-clean
2) Minivan, sticky
3) Not minivan, uber-clean
4) Not minivan, sticky
and compare the no. of attacks
By: m4891 on October 26, 2009
at 8:37 am
I would totally choose Snickers over berries too…unless the berries also came with yogurt and granola. And then it would be a tough decision.
Yogi would be so proud of these bears!
By: Ruby on October 26, 2009
at 11:25 am
Animals… people keep underestimating them.
By: narami on October 26, 2009
at 8:32 pm
m4891 – If only the NPS had the budget to buy four cars and test them that way!
Ruby – I wonder if bears eat yogurt?
Narami – Indeed. Though bears don’t freak me out as much as raccoons, who will stand their ground and fight you for the food!
By: geekhiker on October 26, 2009
at 10:57 pm
correlation != causation
a small fact that our journalists neglect
haven’t read the orig. article, can’t say anything about the NPS guys
By: m4891 on October 29, 2009
at 1:58 pm
Around lake tahoe, the bears love to break into houses. They know the fridge has food and they usually break a window, go to the kitchen and open or turn over the fridge. I told my boss we need to put the bears on our payroll, since they are keeping us in business with the broken windows and window screens.
By: dobegil on November 22, 2009
at 8:19 am