I was leading our group coming down to Avalanche Lake when I saw her. Perched a couple of hundred yards off the trail at the edge of the lake, minding her own business. As the group leader, Sophie, would come to tell us, the black bear’s name was “Yellow-Yellow,” and she just happened to be the most infamous black bear in the region. Known for having no fear of humans, noise, rubber bullets, and especially bear-proof canisters, she was not a bear to mess with. Thankfully, yellow-yellow did not seem to pay us as much attention as we were paying her and as we reached the edge of the lake, she disappeared into the wilderness. This would be the first and last time I ever saw a bear in the ADKs, and sadly for yellow-yellow, one of her last interactions with humans in the park as well. This 2011 interaction I had with her, would come one year before her death at the hands of hunters in the fall of 2012. But what is most remarkable about yellow-yellow, is that it shows the importance of bear tagging, despite its dangers to the taggers. This coordination system has helped to protect both humans and the bears of the park while providing valuable information to biologists.
Bear tagging has come to be an essential part of mapping and tracking the ADK bear population as it not only helps keep track of the number of bears currently in the park but also is a way to identify them and learn their habits and lifestyle compared to others. Typically, bears in the ADKs are tagged at a young age with both a tracking collar and tags in their ears. This process is performed by DEC wildlife biologists who place tags in each ear to identify the bear and a tracking collar around their neck to observe and study its movements. In the case of yellow-yellow, she was tagged in the early 2000s in the first two years of her life with two yellow tags, one in each year, thus leading to her nickname of yellow-yellow. For years, people and DEC biologists alike were easily able to identify yellow-yellow thanks to her tags. Unlike most bears, she was never scared of humans; However she never showed aggression towards them, but she possessed the uncanny ability to unlock supposedly bear-proof food canisters. Over the course of her life, she was tracked with ease thanks to the countless sightings and her not too stealthy stealing of campers’ food. What ultimately lead to her demise, was the inability of a hunter to recognize her tags, a sign that is supposed to tell hunters not to shoot as their target is a state monitored animal.
https://www.adirondackalmanack.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/yellowyellow-DEC.jpg
Sources:
Wichelns, R. (2016, October 20). The Legend of Yellow-Yellow: New York’s Most Infamous Bear. RootsRated. https://rootsrated.com/stories/the-legend-of-yellow-yellow-new-york-s-most-infamous-bear
Crane, D. (2012, November 14). A Yellow-Yellow Obituary –. The Adirondack Almanack. https://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2012/11/a-yellow-yellow-obituary.html
Very interesting topic! I think tagging is a common method for biologists use but it is important from both conservation and research aspects as you mentioned. Your story was really nice to read and I wonder if we can make this tagging method more efficient and less analog to prevent an accidental shooting like in yellow-yellow’s case.
Very cool post! Animal tagging is proving to be a very helpful tool for biologists and ecologists to track animal movements and track populations. They use similar methods for sharks and dolphins off the Eastern seaboard to monitor how warming waters are allowing dolphins to stay further north in shark territory for longer. By tracking these results, convincing data can be created to show how serious the changing climate is. I wonder if bear tracking might have similar methodology to it.
Great blog Henry! Animal tagging is for sure an emotive subject. While some environmentalist believe it restrains animal movement, it does also help biologist in sustaining a thriving population of the animal.
I wonder if there is a better way to tag animals so that the tag is easily seeable while also not restraining animal movement. This could have prevented the death of many animals like yellow-yellow.