SAVE THE BEARS, NOT THE BOORS

Under the category — What were they thinking? — we must add the nature lovers so enthralled with their wildlife encounters that they move within selfie range of a grizzly bear, or an elk or a bison.

Folks, please don’t do that. You’re annoying the natural park residents, and you’re risking your lives for a cheesy photo.

Some visitors tend to forget that Ursus arctos horribilis can weigh, on average, upwards of 300 kilograms.

Those nasty claws are made for tearing open logs, but can do a job on your face. You don’t want to think about those teeth.

What fate befalls these selfie-happy visitors is their own choice. But that isn’t true for the animals they chase after.

On top of invading their space for a photo, visitors leaving messy campsites and improperly storing and disposing of food shows a complete disregard for the lives of wildlife. Signs are posted everywhere in parks: Don’t feed the wildlife. Yet every year we have horror stories of people doing just that.

Usually, it’s just carelessness that a bear or wolf finds a stash of food somewhere. We’ve all seen coolers stored outside vehicles or open bags of chips on picnic tables or the lazy sods who clean their camp dishes at the drinking water faucets or the people who toss their leftovers into the bush or … You get the picture.

Not only is that behaviour messing up our parks, it’s often fatal. Once a wild animal gets a taste of human food, it’s a death sentence. That creature can become a dangerous nuisance to humans and usually must be destroyed.

Last year several wolves were put down for that very reason.

But we’ve also had rare examples of tourist groups actually baiting wildlife with meat. Careless is one thing, that is just criminal.

Parks staff are trying their best to pass on the word to visitors. However, in light of continued transgressions, it’s time to review the enforcement and severity of penalties for ignoring the rules and regulations.

Last year, a few $1,000 fines were handed out for messy campsites. That’s a good start, but we need more of it.

Lest parks staff fear they’re being too harsh, you have our full support to ticket, fine and expel any inconsiderate visitors. Take the gloves off with these dangerous slobs.

We guarantee you have the full support of the 99 per cent of people who truly visit the parks as privileged guests.