Food-conditioned grizzly bear killed in Yellowstone National Park

JACKSON (WNE) — A grizzly bear was trapped and killed in Yellowstone this past week after seeking out human food in developed areas of the national park.

The 11-year-old male is the first bear to be killed by park wildlife managers since 2017 — when a bear was killed after accessing human food in backcountry campsites — though it’s not for lack of trying.

The park was unable to catch and remove a grizzly that broke into an employee residence at Mammoth last year. While on the lam, the bear was trapped and killed near Gardiner, Montana, by Montana wildlife managers.

The bear killed this month was able to flip over 800-pound dumpsters and pull bear-resistant trash cans off of their bases to get into food and garbage.

“The decision to kill the bear was made to ensure public safety and reduce the [chances] of other bears becoming habituated to human food,” the park said in a news release.

“It’s unfortunate that this bear began regularly seeking out garbage and was able to defeat the park’s bear-resistant infrastructure,” Kerry Gunther, Yellowstone’s bear management biologist, said in the park’s statement. “We go to great lengths to protect bears and prevent them from becoming conditioned to human food. But occasionally, a bear outsmarts us or overcomes our defenses.”

Yellowstone had five human-grizzly conflicts last year. None led to human injury, but bears obtained human food in all conflicts. The park did not capture, relocate or remove any grizzly bears in 2024.

This story was published on May 17, 2025.