A bear cub was killed by a car. Its mother mourned by its side, a park ranger says.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Animals

A bear cub was killed by a car. Its mother mourned by its side, a park ranger says.

By Lateshia Beachum
Yesterday at 4:24 p.m. EDT

A call to remove a deceased bear cub from a busy road placed one park ranger in front of a distressed and grieving mama bear. ... An unidentified Yosemite National Park ranger shared on Facebook last week how a typical day became anything but as the ranger witnessed a sow appearing to lament her motionless cub.

On Friday, the ranger’s post said that calls about vehicle-induced bear deaths come in frequently and that this particularly dark task of the job has become normal. ... “Sadly, it’s become routine,” the ranger said. “I log the coordinates into my phone, gather the equipment I may need, and head to the location.” ... Cars zooming along the roadways of Yosemite National Park have struck more than 400 bears since 1995, according to Keep Bears Wild. More than 10 bears were hit by cars in 2020.

{snip}

As the ranger went about their task, an adult bear lurked nearby, watching. ... The ranger threw a rock at a tree to scare away the onlooker until it moved off, the ranger wrote. ... The ranger resumed the task, thinking that the bear could have been close to scavenge or was just there because the site was a common crossing area.

Then, a “deep toned but soft sounding grunt” came from behind the ranger. The sound was a vocalization that female bears make to call their cubs, the ranger realized. ... “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,” the ranger wrote. “I can feel the callousness drain from my body. This bear is the mom, and she never left her cub.”

The sow probably had been calling out and waiting for her cub for at least six hours before the ranger arrived, and each sound she released before her baby grew with audible agony, the ranger wrote.

{snip}

By Lateshia Beachum
Lateshia Beachum is a general assignment reporter for The Washington Post. She previously worked for The Center for Public Integrity. Twitter https://twitter.com/lateshiabeachum

[Ron Green]

1. What a sad story. The car-centric world we have built over the past century

has caused so much more harm than we can imagine, because we are (almost) all part of it.

I’ve come to believe that to get behind the wheel is to lose part of your humanity.

And the damage to true human community and to nature is incalculable.

[markie]

2. I witnessed

a cub hit by a car in Yosemite a few years back... signs are posted but people refuse to obey

[XanaDUer2]

3. Another bear in its habitat suffering due to humanity nt

[lagomorph777]

4. Drivers are going faster and louder and faster and louder all the time.

I'm so sick of all the pointless slaughter that results from this selfish behavior.