Yellowstone tells drivers to honk if approached by a bear

BILLINGS, Mont. – Yellowstone National Park administrators are telling visitors to honk their horn and drive away if a bear approaches and touches their vehicle after two cases of bears approaching cars.

Park spokeswoman Morgan Warthin said Tuesday that a grizzly bear near Yellowstone Lake came up to a car and started playing with its antenna in late May.

Also in May, Warthin says, a black bear previously fed by people in the Mammoth Hot Springs area approached a vehicle, put its paws on a door and looked into the vehicle’s windows.

Bears that get accustomed to people and view humans as a food source can become a public safety threat and are sometimes killed as a precaution.

Warthin says honking a car horn helps discourage such behaviour.