Yosemite’s Bears Are Paying the Price for the Park’s Record Crowds

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Staff Report –

Black bears in Yosemite Valley are eating birthday cake off picnic tables and dying under the wheels of speeding cars, and the two problems share a single root cause.

SFGATE reports that the park’s bears are absorbing the impact of a visitation surge that followed the end of Yosemite’s reservation system, with wildlife advocates warning that more vehicles and more unsecured human food translate directly into more dead animals.

Twenty-eight bears were struck by vehicles inside the park in 2025 and six of them died, according to conservation leader Beth Pratt, who has spent three decades documenting Yosemite wildlife. Her analysis of visitation and collision data going back to 2014 found the two rise together, and vehicle strikes now rank among the leading causes of bear death in the park.

That conclusion runs headfirst into a claim from Yosemite Superintendent Ray McPadden, who said there was zero evidence that crowds affect the park ecosystem in any consequential way while justifying the removal of timed entry.

Anyone who has driven Yosemite Valley knows the signs. The park posts Speeding Kills Bears markers at collision hot spots, and the 25 mph limit exists for a reason that has nothing to do with saving time.

The fix is embarrassingly simple. Slow down, lock food in the bear boxes, and keep scented items out of reach. A cake left unattended in Curry Village is how a wild bear becomes a dead one.

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Reporting from ActiveNorcal.

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