Assignment Task: Black Bears in Yosemite
When visitors enter Yosemite National Park, they are given a pamphlet at the entrance station. It says that in the campground, they must store food in bear boxes so that the bears do not get the food. A bear box is a big metal box that fits at least two coolers. It is bolted to a concrete base, and the catch to open and close the box requires opposable thumbs, which bears do not have. Most visits simply place the pamphlet on their dashboard without reading it. It is common for visitors to store coolers on the back seats of their locked cars, with the windows up, and the cooler fully visible. Bears are very smart, and to get the food in the cooler, they may just break the window with their paw. If the window is too small, a bear can hook his claws around the sides of a car door and simply pull it off. When a bear does hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage this way, the bear is euthanized.
What is currently being done to solve this problem? (You may Google "Yosemite Bear Management".) What additional steps do you think Yosemite National Park should take toward solving this problem?