The Yosemite Files: Volume One

Just what in the fuck is wildlife management? Besides being an oxymoron, this practice is an attempt for human beings to once again harness the awesome power of our natural world, beat it a few times in the head, and then piss all over it in an attempt to make it better. Wildlife management is a big topic here in Yosemite Valley, especially concerning the American Black Bear (make no mistake: it's not Mexican or Canadian).

Thanks to gross habituation of these large beasts through years of the tourist feeding, photographing, and I assume, fucking of these wonderful animals, they are now deemed out of control. So how do we solve the problem? More human intervention of course! Tens of bears are killed by Park Rangers every year because of the property damage they cause (yeah, that's fair, hold them to a penal code and an American ideal that they couldn't possibly comprehend). Those that haven't caused trouble yet are chased out of human infested areas in an attempt to "save" them (a lot like Christian Missionaries tried to "save" heathen Hereros in Africa).

I think that we just have to accept this as a byproduct of our own collective mismanagement in the first place, you know, like global warming. So, in fear of having our cars broken into (because of improper food storage) we pay people with federal funds, to go around shooting these bears with beanbags and maceballs because they are following the evolutionary path and foraging for the most abundant and easily available food source.

There isn't much management on the squirrel front, but these little fuckers are the most annoying of all. No matter how much you stomp your feet at them they just keep coming back. I like to ask people not to feed them not because I care if they become dependant on human food, or fat like many of the people I see waddling around here, but because I don't want a squirrel in my shadow wherever I go. These little shits are relentless. I had one try to take a drag off my cigarette the other day. I told him I would gladly bum him one, but I don't want his bubonic lips on my square.

In summation, wildlife is either no longer wild (thus the necessity of it's management) or we need to solve this problem at it's source: No more people, no more problem. If we close the park to visitors, the animals here will have no choice but to figure out how to find food from the land, or die. And that my friends is natural selection.