It's not a realistic depiction of their lives if you talk to ranchers and cowboys. Real ranches are less opulent and don't use helicopters for transportation; the work is more grueling and less profitable, and there's no place where they can take someone who gives them trouble, and the offender disappears without a trace. An area the show calls “the train station.” But television isn’t reality. And the show’s “Sopranos in cowboy hats" storyline and larger-than-life characters are entertaining. 

And the scenery. 

Oh, the scenery.

 This year, the television drama has created some drama of its own with behind-the-scenes squabbles between its star, Kevin Costner, and Taylor Sheridan. Their spat and the Hollywood strikes have delayed the completion of the show’s final season. Accompanying the show’s drama, its namesake park is experiencing some theatrics.

The park was created in 1892 with President Ulysses S. Grant’s signing of the Yellowstone National Park Act. It was the country’s first national park, and today is one of its most popular. Over three million people visit Yellowstone annually, marvel at its beauty and wonders, and enjoy seeing wildlife up close in their natural habitat. Elk, bison, moose, and grizzly bears, among others, appear along the park’s roads and wander nearby fields.

There’s a scene in Yellowstone’s first season where Costner’s character, ranch owner John Dutton, confronts a group of tourists who talk and laugh while taking pictures of a grizzly bear feeding just a few yards away. In response to his warning, “Get back before that thing eats somebody,” the tour guide calmly says, “It seems friendly.”

And therein lies the problem.

Although the wildlife in Yellowstone seems oblivious to the hundreds of people who swarm around them, they aren’t tame. 

And they aren’t friendly.

Just because they’re conditioned to the presence of two-legged animals doesn't mean they welcome them. It's like your crazy uncle at Thanksgiving. It's okay he's in the house. You just don't want him sitting next to you at dinner. 

Grizzly bears and bison aren’t billy goats and dairy cows, and Yellowstone isn't a petting zoo. But every year, despite the repeated warnings posted throughout the park, printed in Yellowstone literature, and accompanying all the area’s websites, some people still try to get as close as they can to the animals. They're aware of the danger. But their common sense goes on vacation when they see one of these furry creatures lumbering nearby.

An Instagram account collects photos and videos of these people in action. It’s called Tourons of Yellowstone. 

Get it?

Tourons = Tourists + Morons.

Morons might seem like a strong word until you watch the videos of Yellowstone visitors approaching a grizzly bear or an elk to prove their bravado or get a better picture. They think the rules don't apply to them or believe the authorities are being overcautious. Outside of the Instagram posts and other social media references, there are news stories seemingly every day highlighting the idiocy of another touron. 

If they were the only ones in danger, I would say let Darwin’s theory of natural selection do its thing and skim the debris off the gene pool. A khaki-clad tourist, sunglasses perched on their head, armed with just a smartphone and a stainless-steel thermos of water, is no match for an angry grizzly or an enraged buffalo. But they put other visitors, as well as the animals themselves, at risk. Officials have tried to deter would-be tourons through arrests, fines, lifetime bans and jail time, but the stupid, senseless acts continue. 

As someone who has enjoyed the park and lives part of the year in the neighboring Madison Valley, my beer and chicken wing infused blood boils when I see the videos or read the news stories. Something needs to be done to stop people from approaching and treating wild animals like they’re the neighbor’s Golden Retriever.

Erecting fences between park visitors and its residents would interrupt the animals’ migratory and feeding patterns. Prohibiting people from leaving their cars would punish the many because of the acts of a few and violates President Grant’s idea of Yellowstone as a “pleasuring park for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.”

But there could be a more effective deterrent and solution to end the madness. One we can borrow from the fictional Yellowstone world. If you’re caught violating the park’s regulations on approaching animals and maintaining safe distances, you won't be arrested, fined, jailed, or banned, and you won't be ridiculed on social media.

Sneak up on a grizzly bear or slide in close to a bison, and someone will drop you off at the train station.

Tourons ride free.