Posted on 07/24/2024 6:29:49 AM PDT by Red Badger
A young black bear with different coloring that looked more like a Muppet than an apex predator freaked out Yellowstone tourists. But the bear, which had shaggy fur and racoon-like markings, was just a regular bear, an expert says.
(Cowboy State Daily Staff)
Sylvia Borgonovo and her husband, David, were trying to enjoy some quiet fishing on the Madison River in Yellowstone National Park when suddenly, somebody yelled “grizzly!” and tourists started to stampede.
She shouted to them that panicking and running was not the thing to do if a grizzly is approaching, but they wouldn’t listen.
Then the critter appeared: It wasn’t a grizzly, but a young black bear that Borgonovo said was the most unusual thing she’d ever seen in Yellowstone.
With light-colored — almost white — shaggy fur and facial markings described as being “like a racoon,” the confused bear looked like it could have come from the imagination of the late Jim Henson, one of the original designers of the Muppets.
“Somebody also said it looked like ‘ALF,’” Borgonovo told Cowboy State Daily, referencing the 1980s television sitcom about a furry space alien who takes up residence with a suburban family.
Tried To Calm Tourists Down
The Borgonovos are from Missoula, Montana, but they rent an apartment in West Yellowstone each year from May to October, and they spend as much time as they can outside in Yellowstone country.
They’ve seen many black bears and grizzlies over the years, and they know how to behave around bears. (Not running and screaming, for starters.)
After a day of exploring the park on July 14, they were driving back to their place in West Yellowstone when they decided to pull over next to the Madison River and get some fishing in.
Everything was quiet and peaceful at first. There was a group of about 15 tourists down the riverbank from them, and everybody seemed to be having a good time.
Then the chaos started.
“I turned to my right and put my pole down to go see what was going on. And my husband just kept fishing, of course,” she said.
The tranquility was replaced by terror.
“It was something out of a horror movie, everybody was running and screaming,” Borgonovo said.
She tried telling the tourists to calm down and just back slowly away from the bear.
It was frustrating, because running like that “is about the dumbest thing you can do,” she said.
“You’re trying to tell them, and they won’t listen to you because you don’t have a badge,” Borgonovo said. “You know how it is, people behaving badly.”
To make matters even worse, “none of them even had any bear spray with them,” she said.
That’s No Grizzly
Apparently, somebody had first spotted the bear on the opposite riverbank. When it started swimming across the river toward the tourists, people began bolting and fleeing toward their vehicles.
The bear came up the bank, perhaps 100 feet from the frightened crowd.
Borgonovo immediately recognized it as a black bear, and a young one at that, perhaps a yearling.
“People thought it was a grizzly,” she said. “Come on. It had long ears, a long nose, no dished face, no hump.”
Despite its unusual appearance, the bear looked to be in good shape and not suffering from any weird mutations.
“The bear looked healthy, young, curious … and scared,” Borgonovo said.
Natural Variations
She surmised that as a young animal, perhaps out exploring for the first time away from its mother, the bear swam across the river to get a closer look at the humans.
But when the humans went bonkers, it was probably just as frightened as they were, she said.
Once everybody was settled into their vehicles and safe from the terrifying and terrified bear, Borgonovo snapped a picture of it through a telephoto lens.
After seeing the photo, Wyoming Game and Fish Large Carnivore Specialist Dan Thompson said the bear’s appearance is just a product of nature and not the result of some strange condition.
Black bears come in a wide variety of shades, he told Cowboy State Daily.
“We see a great deal of variation in black bear pelage in Wyoming, and especially during the summer when they are shedding, they can look somewhat shaggy, mottled or unkempt as summer coats replace winter coats,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
Unbearable ping!................
Obviously this was the result of Climate Change!
You have to admit, he’s a bit strange looking for a black bear. You can see why people might think “grizzly”.
We’ve had black bears getting up on people’s decks for the bird feeders, and raiding trash curbies. The pics show normal looking black bears. They’re up in the hills a mile or more away from me, in areas that back up to an undeveloped mountain/ridge. I’d prefer to *not* see one down here.
I expect DNR might have to get involved if this continues.
Yogi needs a new barber 😏
He looks like the world’s largest RACCOON!.....................
Maybe one came up from South America with the other "migrants."
Black bear - recessive gene. They’ve been seen in NJ with albino-like traits. I have a black bear that lives in my property in our luxury cave system of large granite boulders. They generally don’t bother with us humans; there’s lots of open space in the Federal Wildlife Preserve across the street.
Bearthink: Idiot tourists running and screaming = easy prey. But do they taste good?
That young fellow needs a decent haircut!
Or maybe a mohawk haircut.
The Gods Must Be Angry.
The Earth farted.......................
Is it them again, Yogi?
In our area of southeast Kentucky the bears are out in force this year. In the nearby small town my sons a police officer and they have answered numerous calls in this last week about bears being in the town and yards. They usually just keep people away and do the noise thing to run the bears back off into the mountains, although one idiot tried petting and feeding one and got his ankle bit for his stupidity.
Last night about 9:45 my wife and I were watching tv and one of her German Shepherds who was outside cut loose with the you need to check this out now bark! She opened the front door and screamed there’s a bear on the porch and slammed the door closed! I told her turn the porch lights on and when she did the bear turned and ran off with the dog hot on his heels barking. When it cleared the yard the dog ran right back to the front door and we let him in and kenneled him in the laundry room for the night. The bear was probably 75-100lbs, small fellow.
No, this is not an ordinary black bear. That is Fred. Fred is an outcast — ‘cause he looks freaky. :)
Long, long time ago my family took a road trip from Mo to Ca to visit family. Drove thru YStone. As expected, every few miles there was a batch of cars by the side of the road taking piccies of deer, bears, whatever. This was back in the late ‘50’s.
Anyhoo, one memorable stop had Mommy black bear with her two babies. Gawd, cameras everywhere. Until some dip-SH@#$% kid thought it would be funny to slap one of the babies on the butt. By the time the “smack” echo ran down every tourist had teleported back to their car. Twas amazing.
There is a squirrel in my hood that’s black with a blonde tail and the effect of that contrast is similar to the bear in your pic. Very cool.
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