Yosemite Black Bears Prefer Minivans

This thread is for comments on the article "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. ...

Full article at http://www.trailspace.com/articles/2009/10/27/yosemite-bears-prefer-minivans.html

And my wife wanted a minivan....

Hey, I hadn't considered that before, but if you don't like minivans you can use this as an excuse to not get one.

I personally felt awash with good sense for having a station wagon, the least likely to be broken into (j/k).

Strange, I would have thought the same kid-making-mess-with-food standard would apply to a station wagon as well as the easier to break into (more, larger windows). Guess those with station wagons are closer to the floor with less foot room and tend to keep it cleaner than the mini-van folks.

The same engineering that makes it easy for soccer moms to get into and out of a minivan probably is what makes them easier for bears to get into and out of.

I noticed sports cars had a very low break-in rate. I think I'll mention that to my wife next time when we trade in.

Explorer Robby said:

Guess those with station wagons are closer to the floor with less foot room and tend to keep it cleaner than the mini-van folks.

I think there may be fewer black hole spaces to lose food inside a station wagon, or at least in my Subaru Outback. Or maybe we're just obsessively neat rule-followers, and the bears know it (still kidding).

Now sports cars I would expect to be the cleanest.

Heck, my pickup truck is mostly clean. Granted, there is dirt from my feet on the floor mats, but I dont eat or anything in it, I always remove clutter from it and its a work truck. I blame the kids here. Minivans always mean kids, kids always mean mess. (I have 4 of them, I should know).