Former park ranger explains reasons why some tourists forget rules in Yellowstone

A former Yellowstone National Park ranger calls it the “Disney Syndrome” when people walk right up to wild animals in the park.

“(Tourists) think they’re all pets, what you see in the Disney films,” said Bob Richard of Cody. “With that attitude, you’re going to get hurt.”

Richard worked as a Yellowstone ranger from 1956-60. Later, he owned a guide and tour business that took visitors into the park.

He noted that tourists are given handouts along with a map when they enter the park, “but they don’t read them.”

“They’re just interested in looking at the map and going to Old Faithful and Canyon,” he said. “They forget about traffic rules and stop signs — they don’t want to break the law, but they’re so busy that they don’t think.”

Richard said the report of a tourist putting a bison calf into his vehicle “is not any more strange than a visitor walking up and putting their hand on the head of a bison and saying, ‘Take my picture,’ or putting  their hand on a bear laying down and saying, ‘Take my picture.’”

And those are things he’s seen people do, or try to do, many times, he said.

Richard said he’s heard his share of funny questions from tourists.

“There are thousands of things they ask,” he said, and he’s had to resist his first impulse to give a sarcastic or smart-aleck answer.

For instance, “People are always asking, ‘Do they turn off Old Faithful in the wintertime?’” he said.

“When you’ve worked there for years, it’s very hard not to say, ‘Oh yes, we turn it off in the winter and turn it off at night,’ — but of course, that’s not correct,” he said.

Other questions he’s heard include:

• “Are there any fish in the lake?”

• “Do they have barns for the bears?”

• “At what elevation do deer turn into elk?

• “Do the animals swim the river?”

• “Why don’t you keep the bison in a corral?”

“They just don’t know,” Richard said. “They’re from the city.”

More general questions include:

• “Is this really a volcano?”

“Usually, I refer them to the Canyon Visitor Center, so they can really understand that this is one of the largest active volcanos in the world,” Richard said.

• “Can I see Yellowstone in two hours?”

“I refer them to Choice Aviation in Cody, then they get mad,” he said.

“One of the ones that drives me crazy is that, as you drive down through a valley and see a river, they ask, ‘What’s the name of that river?’ It’s the same river they saw before.”

When tourists ask questions that seem dumb, “the key is to smile and try to understand where they’re coming from, and to give them an answer that doesn’t make them feel stupid,” he said. “They want to share ... their experiences in the park — the bear they saw, the animal they saw, the buffalo, the geyser. They are so excited, they can hardly contain themselves. There are so many natural wonders, and the wildlife is phenomenal. They forget there are rules.”

However, that’s not always the case these days, according to Yellowstone spokeswoman Charissa Reid.

Based on her observations, there are more instances of park visitors getting into trouble because they are looking to get their video and pictures out on social media, Reid said in an Associated Press story.

“I think it’s a pretty big problem,” she said.

Richard said one of the park’s rules is that anyone making money off Yellowstone National Park is required to purchase a license for what they do in the park.

When he had his guide business, “I had a license to go hiking, fishing and travel by vehicle. The bottom line is, once you’re licensed, you’re responsible for the care and safety of those individuals as well as care of the animals, flora and fauna. You have to know what the rules are and understand them so you protect the resources as well as protect the guests.”

According to The Associated Press, the four Canadians who call themselves High On Life SundayFundayz did not have a license to film in the park when they left the walkway at Grand Prismatic Spring and walked on fragile ground and sensitive habitat near the spring.