I just love this.
Back in the 1980s, Yosemite National Park was having a serious problem with bears: They would wander into campgrounds and break into the garbage bins. This put both bears and people at risk. So the Park Service started installing armored garbage cans that were tricky to open—you had to swing a latch, align two bits of handle, that sort of thing. But it turns out it’s actually quite tricky to get the design of these cans just right. Make it too complex and people can’t get them open to put away their garbage in the first place. Said one park ranger, “There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists.”
Via Danny.
Plus the difference in the power of the motivation. Motivation for the bear, Free Food. Motivation for the tourist, tidy up.
File this under, “Additional Evidence To Support Things We Already Knew.”
I was half expecting it to have a mention of pic-a-nic baskets.
“Some of the things people have thought they could do with a bear…”
Seems to me that thinking you could do ANYTHING with a bear is pretty stupid.
If you should meet a bear, you don’t get to do anything with him. He might get to do something with you, though.
“If you meet the Bear on the road, kill him.”
Ogden Nash, excerpted:
Adventures Of Isabel
Isabel met an enormous bear,
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t care;
The bear was hungry, the bear was ravenous,
The bear’s big mouth was cruel and cavernous.
The bear said, Isabel, glad to meet you,
How do, Isabel, now I’ll eat you!
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry.
Isabel didn’t scream or scurry.
She washed her hands and she straightened her hair up,
Then Isabel quietly ate the bear up.
See also: Travels with Farley - Fur and Loafing in Yosemite and Eat, Drink & Be Hairy - The Travels & Travails of Yosemite’s Bears & Their Peculiar Pals by Phil Frank