In Yosemite, George Meléndez Wright noticed abundant deer, scarce mountain lions, and bears fed for entertainment. He wanted the Park Service to study what was happening. To get the work started, he paid for the travel, equipment, and salaries himself.

The bears were the show. Crowds gathered to watch them eat, while the park had few staff assigned to the animals that drew no crowd at all. Wright was a young biologist, new to the Service, and he suspected the valley’s lopsided numbers had a cause. He spent more than half of what his father left him to find it, and he covered the costs alone until 1931.