National Park Service educates public on wildlife safety

For those exploring Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef or Zion National Park this summer, the National Park Service has posted safety precautions on X for encountering wildlife.

“Bears are generally solitary creatures, but they do congregate around high quality food sources,” the National Park Service said in a post with a bear enjoying its salmon dinner.

The National Park Service’s most frequent warnings regard visitors properly storing their food. Zion National Park’s Instagram page gives a brief but efficient explanation of these warnings by using the state of squirrels and chipmunks in the parks as a caveat.

“The squirrels and chipmunks in the park have become very used to visitors. … Feeding animals leads them to not being able to find food on their own, making them dependent on people. Plus, they will bite if you try to touch them,” the post said.

These warnings extends to all park visitors, as they not only apply to when visitors encounter small animals such as squirrels and chipmunks, but they also apply for when larger animals cross one’s path.

Shayne Patrick, a veteran from Massachusetts, recently shared his own grisly story on Facebook about his encounter with a bear. Maintaining his respect for wildlife, Patrick referred to the encounter as “the most violent thing I have ever experienced.”

Patrick was trying to catch a photo of a great grew owl when he found himself alone with spotty cell reception and was attacked by a protective mother bear.

“The number one thing that kept me alive during the attack was reading and understanding what to do in the event of a bear attack and being prepared with the bear spray,” he said. Patrick was rescued from the scene via helicopter.

When a juvenile bear was rescued from a tree in Salt Lake City in early June, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources informed Utahns that bears are currently waking up from hibernation and it is possible to see them migrating at this time.

Though this bear was found unintentionally, according to National Park Service’s mortality data from 2014-2019, more than 50% of the deaths that occurred in the parks were unintentional.

The National Park Service said the statistic is not meant to scare away visitors, but Visit Utah reminds those who visit Utah’s national parks that exploring the outdoors is a shared experience with wildlife and should be prepared for accordingly.