American Black Bear in Jasper NP, Alberta, CA
Observation from September 25th, 2017
It was another cloudy day in the mountains for us. The day before, we even had had snow at Maligne Lake and Medicine Lake. Still, we wanted to try our luck and drive up to Mount Edith Cavell to get closer impressions of glaciers and alpine life.
Lucky we got, but in a different way than expected. We turned onto Highway 93A at Athabasca Falls. Only a few hundred meters along, cars were stopped on the road. We stopped as well and craned our necks. And there it was, feeding right next to the road: our first American Black Bear. We took pictures through the windshield and watched as the bear, seemingly oblivious to the cars, continued feeding on shrubs.
After a few minutes, some people got impatient. Cars were moved. The bear disappeared a few meters into the wilderness. Next we saw some people leaving their cars and following the bear on foot with their smartphones! They stood on the road, trying to get a better look. The bear was only about 10 meters away! Other people were honking their horns, but they didn’t care. When even more people left their car, we drove on. We didn’t want to watch any more of this reckless behavior.
Only we didn’t get very far, since the road was closed to traffic without a permit. So we turned around to get back to the Icefields Parkway. The bear was still in the area, and some people were still acting crazy.
