[MarMema]

compared to the US, where on average two people a year die as a result of an encounter with a bear.

Somewhat popular post on facebook is a genuine response from a visitor at Yellowstone complaining about not having seen any bears and suggesting the bears be trained to show themselves to visitors.

[FredZarguna]

The bears at Yellowstone were at one time trained to do exactly that. They were fed garbage and came down to the accessible areas in anticipation of being fed by the dumped trash on a nightly basis.

Now the park's policy is the opposite, Bears are mostly kept in managed areas away from people and denied human food and food waste.

Bears are very smart, in fact, I once heard an animal intelligence expert claim that bears and pigs [which are related] are the smartest non-primate species. [She claimed the intelligence of dolphins was highly overrated.] They can be very quickly trained to show themselves to visitors, but the park service doesn't want the liability anymore.

[bobby.223]

More than the usual number of the Big Fellas roaming around up here this year. Not sure of why the larger totals of ‘em now, but they are great to view, (from a LONG distance away, or with Binos), as they cruise along thru the Mountains without a care in the world.

[Hugin]

Maybe they just need more pic-a-nic baskets.

[FreedomPoster]

I blame Disney.