Yosemite Black Bears Prefer Minivans

A study published in the October 2009 issue of Journal of Mammalogy found that black bears in Yosemite National Park selectively foraged for a particular type of vehicle: breaking into minivans more often than any other vehicle, based on vehicle availability.

(National Forest Service image)

The Abstract states: “Black bears forage selectively to balance energetic and nutritional gains with foraging costs. Selection of minivans by bears in Yosemite National Park was the likely consequence of efforts to maximize caloric gain and minimize costs by targeting vehicles with higher probabilities of payoff.”

There are several, non-mutually exclusive possibilities for the higher rate of minvan break-ins:

• Minivans may emit stronger food odors, regardless of how much food is present inside. (Blame the sticky car seats and small children who spill food and drink.)
• Minivan passengers may leave more food inside their vehicles. (Most vehicles broken into have some amount of food or trash inside. Yosemite visitors are required to use bear lockers or other approved storage methods.)
• Minivans may be physically easier to break into.
• A few individual bears may have learned to repeatedly break into minivans for a better payoff.

Station wagons were broken into the least (see chart below).

Chart: Percentage of vehicles broken into by black bears (Ursus americanus; used—black) and parked overnight (available—gray) by class of vehicle in 2004–2005. Only use of minivans surpassed availability and shows that black bears strongly selected for this class of vehicle.

The study, Selective Foraging For Anthropogenic Resources By Black Bears: Minivans In Yosemite National Park, is available online.

Modesto Bee article: “Yosemite bears know big picnics come in minivans”

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