Utah’s national parks can expect plenty of visitors with summer approaching. However, last week’s incident involving a Yellowstone tourist who put a bison calf into his car has raised concerns over contact between humans and park animals.
Ken Maxwell, a retired conservation officer living in British Columbia, said that visitors to the parks should not try to intervene with animals that seem distressed. He said that they should instead get into contact with park staff.
“The best thing they can do, if they see something that’s in the wild and they feel it’s distressed, is to get a hold of the local park warden or the conservation officer or the game warden. Somebody that deals with it. Not the police. And say, ‘Here’s the situation,’ and have him come out if he can,” Maxwell said.
Maxwell said that it is important to better inform people about leaving animals alone. He said that, many times, the animals can’t be reintroduced back into the wild.
“The key to all this wildlife stuff is education; for you and I to sit down the little girl that comes in with the ducks in the box that came in on Tuesday morning. We’ve got to say ‘Thank you very much,’ and then take mother aside and say, ‘Listen lady, those ducks are dead.’ The shock treatment,” he said. “It’s not a good thing but she has to know that those ducks are not going to survive. You should have left them alone.”
The bison calf in question had to be euthanized.
