Park staff at Wyoming\u2019s Grand Teton National Park<\/a> put down the animal last Friday after a \u201cconcerning pattern of behavior\u201d from both humans and the animal that escalated over several days.<\/p>\n The bear had approached visitors near the park\u2019s southwestern Delta Lake earlier this year, a turquoise body of water that sits at 9,000 feet elevation. <\/p>\n But it wasn\u2019t clear whether this was an isolated occurrence or if the bear had been food-conditioned<\/a>, learning to find meals near people. <\/p>\n \u201cThat changed last week,\u201d the park wrote in a Tuesday Facebook post<\/a>. <\/p>\n The bear had received multiple human food rewards and repeatedly approached people in the area. <\/p>\n The mammal was unusually difficult to scare away from the people, staff found, following increased monitoring.<\/p>\n Park managers determined that the bear\u2019s escalating proximity to humans, repeated food rewards and more food-conditioned behavior created an \u201cunacceptable safety risk.<\/p>\n The bear was darted before it was euthanized at the backcountry lake and then the carcass was flown out of the area the next morning. <\/p>\n \u201cWe need to be clear – this bear was lethally removed because of poor decisions made by park visitors,\u201d the park wrote. \u201cIt is everyone\u2019s responsibility to help keep bears wild: Never leave food unattended, even for a moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Parkgoers and campers should gather all belongings if a bear approaches, and especially food items. <\/p>\n \u201cHelp us keep bears wild by making the right choice every time,\u201d the park said.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the first time a bear has been euthanized after being food-conditioned. <\/p>\n A bear in Montana\u2019s Glacier National Park was euthanized<\/a> last summer after entering a vehicle and at least one building in search of food and another was euthanized in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho-based Yellowstone National Park after tearing down properly stored food bags<\/a> and crushing a tent.<\/p>\n “We go to great lengths to protect bears and prevent them from gaining access to human food in all areas of the park,\u201d Kerry Gunther, Yellowstone bear management biologist, said last July. <\/p>\n “But occasionally, a bear outsmarts us or overcomes our defenses. When that happens, we sometimes have to make the difficult decision to remove the bear from the population to protect people and property.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-773001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Visitors](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/812345653_1993447691246414_8207455915618473653_n.jpeg\")
Visitors approach within feet of a black bear near Delta Lake in Wyoming\u2019s Grand Teton National Park (NPS)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/811616885_1452498090073632_5911386622584530405_n.jpeg\")
The black bear gets into abandoned food and gear in and among trees, logs and boulders in the Delta Lake area (NPS)![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/805923516_1076115105164720_6092498658333817726_n.jpeg\")
This isn\u2019t the first time a bear has been euthanized after being food-conditioned at a national park. Two bears were euthanized in Glacier and Yellowstone last summer (NPS)<\/p>\n