[bee_rider]

“There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists.” is of course a great quip. But in defense of us dumb human tourists, it should also be noted that bears have a much higher personal incentive to get into the garbage, and they sometimes can simplify parts of the puzzle by brute force.

[mrpopo]

"no personal incentive to throw away the trash" is not such a good defence to the dumb tourist's intelligence as you make it seem.

[bee_rider]

"Leave no trace" is very important (and point taken -- some people don't take it seriously enough and it reflects quite poorly on them), but bears are facing hunger and possibly even starvation if they don't find some food source.

[xani_]

That's less dumb and more egotistical, just because tourist is an asshole doesn't mean they are automatically dumb.

[socialismisok]

I disagree, if you are an asshole to the degree that you're just throwing trash on the ground, you cannot be that intelligent.

An intelligent asshole still throws trash away properly.

[ggm]

Also the bears are usually not holding a baby, and a bottle of rum, and a deckchair and their backpack in one hand, trying to drop the rubbish in with one hand. So you have to at least try to design this for one handed human opening, where the bear has two paws to bring to bear (so to speak)

[onion2k]

Failing to realise that you can put things down to do a task and then pick them up again is an important aspect of being a dumb tourist.

[mellavora]

Former forest ranger (great summer internship!), so plenty of experience with dumb tourists, but your comment shows a severe lack of empathy for parents of small children.

Consider, for example, that while you could put the thing down, it might:

start crying uncontrollably, or

run off into the woods (hello, Mr. Bear!), or

start eating the trash, or, ...

[onion2k]

I was mostly suggesting putting the deckchair and bag down rather than the child. But if you did put the child down and it ate some trash, started crying, and ran off in to the woods to get eaten by a bear, I think that's just Darwinism at work. You can't fight evolution.

[cycomanic]

Thank you this made me laugh quite a bit.

I would also add that if your child managed to eat trash, started crying and ran off into the woods within the 20s that it might take to put things into a rubbish bin, then you shouldn't be too worried because it seems to have the survival skills to live in the forest and outrun the meanest predators.

[Ygg2]

I bet you as a child had been born with full knowledge of world. And not for heroic effort of your parents and sheer dumb luck.

[ClumsyPilot]

> You can't fight evolution

Oh, so you are unvaccinated, don't wear clothes for warmth, have survived the plague and only eat what you've killed yourself?

A true self-sufficient specimen of survival?

[fennecfoxen]

ah, this sounds like one of those puzzles where the solution involves you taking the goat across the river, then the cabbage…

[LeifCarrotson]

Parenting is exactly like that; the puzzle is especially analogous when you're outnumbered. The 1-year-old cannot walk but will eat anything he can get his hands on, the 3 year old can fit between the bars on the bridge but does not have the finger strength needed to release the latch on the carseat, the 5 year old can mantle up a 36" ledge and runs at 8 mph but can assist with caring for the 1-year-old for a maximum of 48.6 seconds before one or the other loses focus...

The good news is that after a few years, these safety puzzles become those mathematics problems where the minivan can carry 7 and drives at an average of 40 mph, Suzy can bike to soccer practice at 12mph but only before sunset, Mike's mom is driving south on the freeway at 70 mph and if you drive north on the back roads at 40 mph, the question is which exit should you choose to meet her at so that the crock pot does not overcook dinner before you turn around?

[cycomanic]

As a current parent, I can not envision a situation where it is not possible to put down a child in order to open a rubbish bin with two hands.

I mean there are lots of other situations that occur regularly which require you to put a child you're carrying somewhere else. I mean how do you think parents of more than one child manage?

[dmix]

Or we can just designed one handed garbage bins which require thumbs.

[bee_rider]

In addition to the two paws, they also have powerful jaws. And many humans are surprisingly resistant to mouth-operated garbage opening mechanisms!

[bigDinosaur]

I don't think I've ever had or seen anyone I know have this problem, ever, when disposing of trash. Is this a real issue...?

[SilasX]

Yes, humans might spend an hour and give up, and complain about the time the spent getting the container to work, while a wild animal will spend every waking moment to bypass the container's defense mechanisms.

[phreeza]

Great point, even within humans there are studies that show motivation plays a great role in the measured IQ, eg https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1018601108

[Cthulhu_]

Yup; or paraphrasing, one man's trash is another bear's dinner.