Another Idiot Behaves Badly in Yellowstone Park

We’ve covered this kind of behavior before: moronic tourists getting too close to wildlife in Yellowstone National Park. This time it was a man armed with pepper spray walking directly into a pack of wolves.

Wildlife photographer Keith Allen Kerbs captured the incident (from a safe distance, using a 500-mm zoom lens) and posted a video on Instagram. The clip shows the man walking toward at least five wolves as he waves his arms. The wolves approach him and quickly back away as he wields the pepper spray.

Keith Kerbs via Instagram

Kerbs noted that the “very foolish man … almost didn’t make it out alive.” The fool has not been identified but was reportedly cited by the National Park Service for his lunacy. It is unclear whether he was fined or otherwise punished for his behavior.

“Wolves rarely pose a threat to people, but if they become too comfortable around humans, safety concerns can arise,” the NPS posted on its website. “Preventing wolves from losing their natural wariness of humans is a key goal of Yellowstone’s wolf management.”

Wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone in 1995. Recently researchers noted that the aspen tree has recovered after decades of depletion, since wolves prey on the elk that had been preying on the aspen with impunity. This correction of the food-chain imbalance is restoring the  ecosystem, ecologists say.

A Facebook account called “Yellowstone National Park: Invasion of The Idiots™!” documents tourists behaving badly in the park. See also “Tourons of National Park” (Tourist + Moron = Touron).

Photo credit: Jacob W. Frank / NPS