Animal Dangers, Yosemite National Park

Surprisingly, the Park Service has little information or warnings regarding the most dangerous animal in the park, the mosquito. If you're in the vicinity of any meadow, you're bound to be eaten alive; even large amounts of DEET don't deter them. The good news is, although Yosemite National Park protects wildlife, you're free to kill all the mosquitoes you like. Word of warning: Cook's Meadow and Ahwahnee Meadow have especially large concentrations of mosquitoes.

If you are hiking in the Hetch Hetchy area, you should keep your eyes on the trail as much as possible; snakes are commonplace around the reservoir. During my 5.4-mile hike to Wapama Fall, I saw two snakes. Park Rangers say that as long as the snake doesn't rattle or have slit-like eyes, it won't be much of a threat to you; rattlesnakes are the main poisonous snakes around the area. Most other snakes are not poisonous and rather harmless. Still, keep you distance if you see one, and do not disturb it.

You'll have to enlargen my photo to see the snake.

While camping or staying in Curry Village, make sure you Bear-proof any food as Black Bears call the park home and like Yogi Bear of cartoon fame, they will go after any food they can get their claws into. And remember, they can be dangerous.

This picture is pretty self explanatory.... Yosemite is definately bear country!

Bears have been known to cause major property damage in search of food.

Pay attention to the Park warnings and bear etiquette.

Curry Village is one of the cheapest and most convenient places to stay in Yosemite. It is also the most common place to run into bears. The videos they show you in line are NOT for show. There really are bears here, and they really will attack your car if you leave ANY food in it.

My first trip to Yosemite, I tried to clear all the food out of my car, but a rogue apple fell out of my bag and rolled under my seat. The next morning, the top half of both of my front doors were torn open, and there were pawprints all over my car. Luckily for me, it was just one apple, and there were better pickings elsewhere, so this was the extent of the damage. Other cars in the same parking lot that night were not so lucky.

Keep track of exactly how much food you have with you, and make sure every single piece of food makes it into the cabin or food locker where you are staying.

The first thing you'll notice upon entering Curry Village in Yosemite, are the signs everywhere warning about bears. They even have a looping video that runs all day long behind the counter when you sign in at the front office.

So, you get these "Bear Lockers" in which to stowe away anything that has a smell or taste to it - items ranging from the obvious like food and snacks, to deoderant and toothpaste. (Apparently the bears have developed a taste for domestic toiletries.)

We had the fear of God put into us with all this bear stuff.

Example:

One night as we lay huddled in a fetal position on top of our bare cots, we heard a noise. Actually it was a kind of low growl....and it continued to grow louder. Damn! Who left the toothpaste in our backpack in the tent-cabin, instead of storing it in the Bear Locker like we were supposed to?! What to do now?

We fought over who would get out of the cot, retrieve the toothpaste and dash to the nearest "bear locker" to stash it (at 2:00 am). Overhead and lending to the "Deliverance" kind of atmosphere, a bare bulb was spinning around and around - we'd switched it on out of reflex (and yeah, terror) - and then hurriedly yanked it back off, fearing the light would attract the would-be intruder. Between the spinning bare bulb, the sound of our rapid breathing and the intermittent but continous low growling, we were paralyzed with fear on top of our stiff, stark cots in our lonely, spartan tent-cabin.

Can bears rip through wood?

The next morning, our next door "tent-cabin" neighbor asked us if we'd heard her husband snoring all night, and she apologized if we'd been disturbed by it.

We felt foolish.....
Beware of Bears!

This can be real danger specially in the night, some bears come down from the hills in search of human food, two side are the most dangerour the camp site and YOUR car, the first you need put your food in the brown metal boxes to avoid the bear attack you camp site, and sorprise you in the night. The car if leave a food in your car the bear attack the car and destroy it.

Yosemite National Park is full of bears, even in crowded Yosemite Valley. If you are parking your car in the park (especially overnight), remove all food and other strong-smelling items. Bears in Yosemite have a bad habit of breaking into cars to sample the food that they smell (their sense of smell is far more sensitive than that of humans). If you are camping, put your food up in a tree away from your tent (a hungry bear is not the visitor that you want in the middle of the night).

I laughed out loud when I read the guidebook at the Yosemite Bug hostel. The only animal-related death at Yosemite was caused when a tourist tried to hug a deer and frightened it. There are many injuries from dumb tourists trying to embrace "bambi". heheheh.

Warning : the bears can break into your car !!

Now, don't worry, this is not my car ! ;-)

Not everyone seems to listen to all the advice given. There was a lot of stuff still laying around in this car... but they have been warned... so don't blame the bears!

This is what I witnessed when I walked to the car so very early in the morning. Since Februari (I was there in May) 122 cars have been wrecked this way at Yosemite, mostly to people that don't listen all the advice given to them. I thought the miraculous thing was, that the car next to it didn't seem to have one scratch on it!

The problem at this particular spot has it's origin in an apple orchard that is situated here. The bears would come here to feed on the apples, but found a great alternative in all those cars packed with yummie food!