Longread #65 -- The Grizzly Bear Criminal Justice System -- 5/3/12

This longread provides a detailed look inside America's grizzly bear criminal justice system in Yellowstone Park. Park managers balance competing imperatives of maintaining the population of grizzly bears and also protecting human visitor so the park. When bear attacks happen, a CSI-style team gathers and analyzes evidence to try to find out the specific bear responsible and the circumstances of the attack. A group of experts then tries to determine whether such actions by the bear were "natural" or "unnatural" to determine if the bear should be removed from the wild population. I found this article to be particularly interesting in light of earlier articles posted this week about how dynamic the human relationship with nature can be.

"A Death in Yellowstone" by Jessica Grose
Published in Slate, April 2, 2012
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/death_in_yellowstone/2012/04/grizzly_bear_attacks_how_wildlife_investigators_found_a_killer_grizzly_in_yellowstone_.single.html

Eric