Туристы в национальном парке Гранд-Тетон массово ошибочно используют средство от медведей

Passengers disembark from one of the Jenny Lake Boating shuttles in Grand Teton National Park. The company has seen an uptick in accidental bear spray deployments by visitors since the pandemic. Jenny Lake Boating is at “ground zero” for accidental bear spray deployments in Grand Teton National Park. That’s according to Jerret Mater, one of the company’s owners. As customers continue to get caught in friendly fire, the company has stocked bear spray cleanup kits on both docks, including Dawn dish detergent, baby wipes, extra water and paper towels. “After you get sprayed in the face a couple of times, you’re like, ‘We’ve got to do something about this,’” Mater said. “It has become such a pervasive issue.” As messaging about carrying bear spray has continued to click with visitors, park officials and concessionaires have seen increasing incidence of people bear spraying themselves and others, as well as unwarranted deployments on park bears, Justin Schwabedissen, Teton park’s bear biologist, said during an early July ride-along. In the course of a half-day shadow, Schwabedissen received two calls about unwarranted uses of bear spray. Often, the incidents are caught on video. “If you have time to get your phone out, it tells me the bear isn’t a threat,” Schwabedissen said. In response, Jenny Lake Boating and park staff are encouraging visitors not to be overzealous with their aerosol. “We started to think that we need to make it clear to people that it’s to be used as a last line of defense,” Mater said. “And that here at Jenny Lake, you’re most likely going to encounter black bears.” Staff also are emphasizing basic wildlife etiquette such as giving animals space, not crowding them and making noise, he said. Mater has worked for the boating company for the last 23 years and has watched as bear spray became a mainstream part of the backcountry kit. Since the coronavirus pandemic, the company has seen an uptick in incidents stemming from bear spray, including visitors showing up to board the boat without a safety on their canisters. By the beginning of this summer, visitors were spraying themselves or others almost daily, Mater said. The tempo of those incidents has relaxed, though it still occurs weekly. “People are spraying themselves, spraying each other, spraying us, and it’s a painful experience,” Mater said. “We never had to do this before, but we’ve had to implement bear spray safety and all kinds of different protocols.” Staff are now trained to watch every can of bear spray on the boat to make sure they are holstered and have a safety on. The company gives away thousands of spare safeties each summer, Mater said. Prior to this summer, park staff began putting more emphasis on when to actually use bear spray in an encounter, said Emily Davis, Teton park spokesperson. “Bear spray is intended for an aggressive or charging bear. It’s not intended to be used because a bear is nearby,” Davis said. “It’s not something to use because you see a bear.” Tyler Golledge, marketing manager at Teton Backcountry Rentals, which rents bear spray, said stories of bear attacks in Glacier National Park and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem spread more quickly now because of social media and have made visitors more interested in carrying bear spray. But despite that increase in awareness, gaps in backcountry etiquette remain. That includes how to prevent a surprise encounter in the first place. “I think that people go straight to the bear spray, but they’re missing the education of what to do in bear country,” Mater said. “All the things we used to do when we traveled in bear country have been ignored. They see the bear spray canister as the end all be all.” Golledge has not observed widespread deployment of bear spray rentals. Less than 1% of returned bear spray canisters have been fired, he said. About half of those are accidental. Renters are charged about $20 if they deploy the bear spray. They also receive an educational briefing with their rental. “It’s not like we’re getting sprayed bear spray every day,” Golledge said. “It’s a couple of times per month.” Now that bear fear appears to be widespread amongst visitors, park officials would like to turn down the temperature. “We don’t want people to be unnecessarily scared of bears,” Davis said. “Bears are part of what make Grand Teton and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem so wonderful.”