Thought it was kinda humorous:
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/10/24/MN081A863P.DTLHungry Yosemite bears zero in on minivans
Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, October 24, 2009
A bear climbs out of a minivan in the park. A black bear and her young cubs pass through a meadow nea... A Yosemite National Park bear exits a vehicle in Yosemite...
The rebellious bears of Yosemite Valley have developed a taste for that old standard of the suburban family life, the minivan.
The kid-friendly vehicles are quickly becoming a bear necessity along with handouts and garbage slop, according to a study published in the October issue of the Journal of Mammalogy.
Specifically, the burly bruins select minivans over all other types of vehicles, no matter how sporty, colorful or expensive, and rip them open looking for grub, said the study "Selective Foraging for Anthropogenic Resources by Black Bears: Minivans in Yosemite National Park."
"They target minivans," said Stewart Breck, a research biologist with the National Wildlife Research Center, who co-authored the study. "They will pop open windows, peel open a door, rip out back seats. They can do a lot of damage."
Treasure troves
It is all related to what Breck called "fuel efficiency." He means that minivans often contain goodies like smeared peanut butter, moldy cheese or, occasionally, ice chests full of groceries and beer that bears can use to fuel their opportunistic lifestyles.
"I think there are more food smells in minivans," Breck said. "Bears have very good noses. They are like bloodhounds, so they can smell food even when all the doors and windows are locked tight."
Besides chow, nobody knows for sure what the hairy oafs have in mind when they bear down on a parked vehicle, but structural considerations may also come into play, according to the study. Specifically, the rear side windows of minivans appear to be a snap for bears to pop open.
The study analyzed 908 vehicles in Yosemite National Park that black bears opened like soup cans between 2001 and 2007. Minivans were the first or second preference every year, accounting for 26 percent of all the break-ins. That's despite the fact that they make up only 7 percent of the vehicles parked in Yosemite Valley.
Out of proportion
When researchers compared the number of vehicles available to the number torn open by bears, four times more minivans were broken into than would be expected if they were randomly selected.
About 40 percent of all of the sedans, trucks, sports cars, station wagons, minivans, regular vans, coupes and small cars that were broken into had food in them, according to the study. Of the nine different vehicle types in the study, the bears selected sport utility vehicles second, trashing them 22.5 percent of the time. SUVs make up 22 percent of the cars parked in the valley.
People have food
American black bears, known scientifically as Ursus americanus, are not normally aggressive toward humans, but they sure do like people food, especially in the late summer and fall.
The ungainly brutes have been known to just waltz into campsites with impunity and scarf everything in sight. They sometimes lumber into homes, rip out cupboards and empty refrigerators. Some bruins take up residence under empty homes and just feast until all the food is gone. The furry gluttons eventually give birth to cubs that also learn the joys of wallowing in the syrupy wreckage of a human food cache.
"They are very hungry animals, especially this time of year," Breck said. "They are eating 20 hours a day getting ready for winter hibernation."
Breck said the break-ins are probably all being done by a few individual bears that have learned that minivans usually yield food - and they're easy to crack open. Any bruin that habitually forages around humans, he said, is in danger of being captured and killed.
It's the kids
All of which must be somewhat disconcerting to soccer moms and other minivan aficionados and their sticky-fingered children, who Breck believes are primarily responsible for leaving the odors that are attracting the messy marauders. But he said there is an easy solution.
"The key message we are getting out is that if you are going to go to Yosemite, especially if you have kids, make sure your vehicle is clean," he said.
Or perhaps leave the minivan back home in the cul-de-sac, where it is safe.
