Maybe it's time for nature photographers to start photographinh dumb tourists. :)

Interesting article that does seem to be becoming a bigger problem. Maybe the solution is to start photographing the tourists.

Maybe you can get a photo of a bear eating someone. You could let the park then use it to show what happens when the rules are ignored.

I volunteer for a marine preservation group on Long Island. We sometimes have dead whales wash up on the beach. Now the history of a dead whale is that it died at sea and sank to the bottom. Decomposition produces gases that cause the carcass to float. Wind and tide push it to the beach. The conservation group is tasked with determining the cause of death, as it is a protected mammal. And disposing of the carcass. In the summer months, the big problem is crowd control. People want to put their kids on top of a dead, rotting, incredibly smelly carcass for pictures. Go figure.

The simple truth is that we are a flawed species and likely just a minor blip on the long history of the planet.

Wow, I haven't been to the park for years. It was never like that. The digital era has sure changed things. It seems like the situation is an accident waiting to happen.

It's been getting worse as a) more people visit the parks and b) more foreign visitors come. I was in Yellowstone last year and it seemed like the most egregious offenders were foreigners. Perhaps they didn't have these kinds of large fauna in their countries and couldn't understand the danger, or perhaps that was a language element that prevented the warnings from sinking in, but when people got within 6 or 7 feet of a bull elk with a gigantic rack at Mammoth (yes, it is sitting on the lawn, but it can spring up at you in half a second!) or within 20 feet of a buffalo male, I definitely had my camera ready.

Last time we were in Yosemite I saw a huge crowd blocking off one of the roads on the valley floor. Seems everyone stopped to gawk at a bear sitting in the river maybe 100 yards away. Most were trying to get a picture with their cell phone. Rangers were all over the place providing crowd control and I'm sure if they were not there some joker would have tried to get a lot closer when he/she realized that on a ell phone the bear is no more than a few blurry pixels.

Scrumhalf wrote in post #18042179
............, but when people got within 6 or 7 feet of a bull elk with a gigantic rack at Mammoth (yes, it is sitting on the lawn, but it can spring up at you in half a second!) or within 20 feet of a buffalo male, I definitely had my camera ready.

Sounds like a good opportunity to put AI Servo through some tests

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This paragraph, quoted from the article you linked to, alerted me to something about the author:

I spent a week in Yellowstone and my original plan was to stay there for longer if needed, depending on how much wildlife I would encounter. But I had to cut my trip short, because I was just getting tired of seeing the same behavioral patterns of park visitors over and over again—to the point where it was just getting absurd, abusive and downright stupid.

I thought that if he is so bothered by the behavior of others, to the point that he cut his trip short, then there is a problem with the way he is doing things. Then I went on to read the entire article. It seems all he did was to cruise the roads and visit the well-known, crowded, iconic locations looking for photographic opportunities. So he only bothers going to the places where lots and lots of other people go. Of course he was frustrated! But he should have been frustrated with himself.

If he wanted to avoid the ridiculous shenanigans incessantly displayed by the park's visitors, then he should have done what any self-respecting wildlife photographer would do; get off the roads and hiike into the untrammeled backcountry. He could have had tens of thousands of acres, rife with wildlife photo opportunities, all to himself. It seems like all he did was to drive from one bear jam to the next. What was he expecting?

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There is a lot of truth in what you say Tom, clearly he is an enthusiast but the things the writer points out do seem to be happening more and more. I too prefer the less traveled paths. My favorite hike is still the Alta train in Kings canyon. The trailhead starts at General Sherman, which is a mess of tourists but within a hundred yards or so into the trail all the people disappear. Last time I hiked it we saw no one all day.

gjl711 wrote in post #18042180
[...] and I'm sure if they were not there some joker would have tried to get a lot closer when he/she realized that on a ell phone the bear is no more than a few blurry pixels.

Like the forum members who claim they don't need a zoom lens because the best zoom is their two feet.

scriveyn wrote in post #18043170
Like the forum members who claim they don't need a zoom lens because the best zoom is their two feet.

Nothing beats a good zoom or tele.