![]() Often the incidents go unaddressed, such as when Gleason and the children approached the bull elk with nopark personnel around. The rule-breaking puts visitors in harm's way and can damage resources and displace wildlife, officials said. In Yellowstone, rangers are recording more wildlife violations, more people treading on sensitive thermal areas and more camping in off-limit areas. In July alone, law enforcement rangers handled more than 11,000 incidents at the 10 most visitednational parks. Law enforcement records obtained by The Associated Press suggest such problems are on the rise at the park, offering a stark illustration of the pressures facing some of America's most treasured lands as the National ParkService marks its 100th anniversary.įrom Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains to the Grand Canyon of Arizona, major parks are grappling with illegal camping, vandalism, theft of resources, wildlife harassment and other visitor misbehavior, according to the records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Record visitor numbers at the nation's first national park have transformed its annual summer rush into a sometimes dangerous frenzy, with selfie-taking tourists routinely breaking park rules and getting too close to Yellowstone's storied elk herds, grizzly bears, wolves and bison. ![]() Other tourists - likewise ignoring rules to keep 25 yards from wildlife - picked up the pursuit, snapping pictures as they pressed forward and forced the animal into headlong retreat. ![]() The elk's ears then pricked up, and it eyed the children and Washington state man before leaping up a hillside. "They're going to give me a heart attack," said Gleason's mother-in-law, Barbara Henry, as the group came within about a dozen yards of the massive animal. ![]() (AP) - Tourist John Gleason crept through the grass, four small children close behind, inching toward a bull elk with antlers like small trees at the edge of a meadow in YellowstoneNational Park. ![]()
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