A ranger at Yosemite National Park recently shared the devastating news of a mother bear mourning the death of her baby after the cub was hit by a speeding vehicle.
The story was shared Friday in a now-viral Facebook post from the park in hopes of getting drivers to slow down. The unidentified ranger recounted the moment their office received a call about a dead bear on the side of the road, a call the park gets “too often”.
When such a report comes in, it is the ranger’s duty to find the animal, move it far from the road and then file a report to collect information for future research, the post explains. The ranger writes that this call came in around noon, but by the time they got there it was around 5 p.m.
After scanning the area, the ranger located the cub in the middle of the road.
“A cub. Its tiny light brown body laying just feet from me and the road, nearly invisible to every passerby. It’s a new cub—couldn’t be much more than six months old, now balled up and lifeless under a small pine tree. For a moment I lose track of time as I stand there staring at its tiny body, but then the sound of more cars whizzing by reminds me of my place and my role. I let out a deep sigh and continue on with my task,” the ranger wrote.
The ranger then picked up the remains to move it to another location when they heard a noise in the nearby woods. The ranger recalled the noise as a “deep-toned but soft-sounding grunt.”
“I immediately know what it is. It’s a vocalization, the kind sows (female bears) make to call to their cubs,” the ranger wrote. “I can feel the callousness drain from my body. This bear is the mom, and she never left her cub.”
The ranger then details their experience as they watched the mother continue to mourn the loss.
“My heart sinks. It’s been nearly six hours and she still hasn’t given up on her cub. I can just imagine how many times she darted back and forth on that road in attempts to wake it. It’s extremely lucky that she wasn’t hit as well. The calls to the cub continue, sounding more pained each time. I glance back finding myself hoping it would respond to her call too, but of course, nothing. Now here I am, standing between a grieving mother and her child. I feel like a monster.”
The Yosemite ranger ended the Facebook post by urging visitors of the park to be more cautious and drive the speed limit in order to protect the wildlife, along with a link to learn more about protecting the park’s bear population.
“Remember that when traveling through Yosemite, we are all just visitors in the home of countless animals and it is up to us to follow the rules that protect them,” the post said. “Protecting Yosemite’s black bears is something we can all do.”
A total of eight bears have been hit by vehicles along the park’s road this year, according to Yosemite National Park data.
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