Bear crushes tent while looking for food in Yellowstone campsite, officials say
A black bear went to extreme lengths while trying to get human food in Yellowstone National Park, officials said.
It started in June when the bear crushed an unoccupied tent at the Blacktail Deer Creek drainage, one of the park’s backcountry campsites in the northern part of the park, the National Park Service said in a news release on July 17.
Then just a few weeks later on July 11, the black bear climbed the campsite’s food storage pole, “tore down properly stored food bags, and consumed the campers’ food,” officials said.
The poles are designed to keep food out of bears’ reaches.
As a result of the “series of concerning incidents,” park staff killed the adult female black bear, officials said.
“Although it is uncommon for bears in Yellowstone to obtain human food, when it does occur, bears can quickly become food-conditioned and may act aggressively or dangerously around humans, putting both people and wildlife at risk,” officials said. “The bear’s escalating behavior — including property damage and obtaining a significant food reward — posed a clear threat to visitor safety and warranted removal.”
The bear learning to overcome the park’s backcountry food storage poles factored into the decision to kill her, as well as “ongoing concern for human safety” and the damage to camping equipment, officials said.
“We go to great lengths to protect bears and prevent them from gaining access to human food in all areas of the park,” Kerry Gunther, the park’s bear management biologist, said in the release. “But occasionally, a bear outsmarts us or overcomes our defenses. When that happens, we sometimes have to make the difficult decision to remove the bear from the population to protect people and property.”
The park provides the poles or bear-resistant food storage boxes and requires campers to hang their food from the pole or store it in the storage box when not cooking or eating, officials said.
“Yellowstone reminds all visitors that utilizing these bear safety measures remain crucial in ensuring public safety and preventing wildlife from developing dangerous habits,” officials said.
The last time park staff killed a black bear was in July 2020 when a bear injured campers and got into human food at one of the park’s 293 backcountry campsites.
This story was originally published July 17, 2025 at 6:23 PM with the headline "Bear crushes tent while looking for food in Yellowstone campsite, officials say."
