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History of the Grizzly Bear and the current challenges they face

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a heated debate began in the 1960s and 1970s and grew to a national scope concerning the grizzly bears in the GYE. For decades, grizzly bears were allowed to rummage through garbage dumps searching for food. As early as the 1940s, some researchers suggested closing the open-pit dumps within Yellowstone National Park. In 1963, the Advisory Board on Wildlife Management in the National Parks released the “Leopold Report” which recommended that natural ecosystems should be recreated, including predator/prey relationships.

By 1967, Yellowstone National Park’s Superintendent Anderson began to implement recommendations of the Leopold Report. The Park began closing the open-pit dumps and bears were to be weaned off garbage. Some researchers suggested gradually phasing out the dumps, but the Park staff closed everything, rationalizing that there were enough backcountry bears that did not use dumps to sustain the mortality. The controversy continued because grizzly bear mortality increased substantially as dumps were closed. Between 1967 and 1972, a minimum of 229 Yellowstone ecosystem grizzlies died.

The IGBST was formed by the Department of Interior in 1973 as a direct result of this controversy. The high mortality that followed dump closure and concerns for the population’s future led to its listing as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1975. Early research by the team indicated that following listing, the population continued to decline into the 1980s. This information was the foundation and impetus for the formation of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC) in 1983. The IGBC, represented by administrators from federal and state agencies, implemented several regulations on federal lands designed to reduce human-caused grizzly bear mortality. These management policies, in concert with favorable environmental conditions, halted the population’s decline. Grizzly bear numbers have increased since the mid-1980s and today bears again occupy historical range well beyond Yellowstone National Park.

Today

Grizzly bears are being killed by hunters in record numbers around Yellowstone National Park and researchers say the once-endangered predator is expanding across the region.

Bears are being seen – and killed – in places where they were absent for decades. Researchers suspect climate change is wiping out one of the bear’s food sources and they worry the trend will continue as the animals roam farther in search of food.

Yellowstone’s 600 grizzlies were removed from the endangered species list in 2007, following a recovery program that cost more than $20 million. If the death rate stays high for a second consecutive year, that would trigger a review of the bear’s endangered status.

“Last year may have been one of those fluke years,” said Chuck Schwartz, a bear biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. “Last year could be the beginning of a trend.”

Federal officials say 48 bears were killed by humans last year, out of 71 total deaths. At least 20 of the bears died at the hands of hunters who shot in self-defense or after mistaking them for other animals.

“It’s kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing. All you see is a big bear coming at you full speed,” said Ron Leming, a Wyoming elk hunter who said he survived an attack from a 500-pound (225-kilogram) male grizzly after his father shot it dead with an arrow.

“If you play dead he might sit there and eat you,” Leming said.

Schwartz and other biologists who study grizzlies insist the population in the 15,000-square-mile (38,850-square-kilometer) Yellowstone region of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming remains strong for now, growing on average 4 to 5 percent a year.

Yet they acknowledge climate change could prove the wild card that puts that growth in check. An epidemic of beetles in Yellowstone’s high country has laid waste to tens of thousands of acres of whitebark pine trees, which have seeds that some grizzlies rely on as a dietary staple.

Beetle epidemics are cyclical in the Northern Rockies. The latest one has been prolonged by several consecutive winters in which subfreezing temperatures did not last long enough to knock back the infestation.

If a warming world leads to less whitebark pine,

environmentalists fear grizzlies will become more aggressive in

challenging hunters – contests that bears usually lose.

“The prospect is that every year is going to be a bad food year because of what’s happening to whitebark,” said Doug Honnold, an attorney for the group Earthjustice.

Citing dying pine forests as a major threat, Honnold’s group sued the federal government in an attempt to get Yellowstone grizzlies back on the endangered species list.

Christopher Servheen, bear recovery coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said his agency is closely monitoring the population and already crafting a plan to stem the death rate.

Meanwhile, conservationists are trying to encourage hunters to use mace-like bear spray as a non-lethal alternative to keeping them at bay.

Other measures being considered are stepped-up public education efforts and restrictions on livestock grazing, to prevent bear attacks on sheep and cattle.

Gregg Losinski, an education specialist with Idaho Fish and Game, said promoting the possibility of future grizzly bear hunts might convince more people to buy into bear conservation.

Even with those measures, researchers say bear deaths are inevitable as the animals return to a different landscape than that occupied by their ancestors.

Before early European settlers drove bears to near extinction, there were an estimated 50,000 grizzlies in the western half of the United States.

Yellowstone’s bears are among about 1,500 that have since repopulated the Northern Rockies. They must compete for space with several million tourists, and property owners.

“Some people say, ‘This is terrible, there’s more bears killed now than in many years,” Servheen said. “Well, there’s more bears now.”

Montanans interested in the well being of grizzly bears have had good and bad news recently.

After 26 years, the Yellowstone grizzly bear population was declared recovered. The bears were removed from the federal list of endangered and threatened wildlife species in April 2007, though grizzlies in the Yellowstone Ecosystem still face challenges.

“Human caused grizzly mortalities continue to be scrutinized, especially for female grizzly bears that are critical to the survival of the bears in the Yellowstone Ecosystem,” said Chris Smith, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks deputy director and a long-time member of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee.

“A serious issue for grizzly bears is the unprecedented attack of mountain pine beetles on whitebark pines,” said Smith.

Whitebark pine seeds are a staple in grizzly bears’ diets in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide Ecosystems.

Smith said some bear biologists are concerned that the loss of the nutritional whitebark pine seeds could in turn reduce the grizzly bears’ reproductive success.

“Providing areas where grizzlies can expand their range and find new foods will be an important part of helping the bears cope with the loss of whitebark pine trees,” Smith said.

In another part of the state, the Northern Continental Divide Grizzly Bear Project concluded there were an estimated 765 grizzly bears in the Northern Divide ecosystem in 2004—well above what was expected. This project involved two years of fieldwork by more than 200 researchers and crew and three years of analysis of more than 34,000 bear DNA samples.

Researchers genetically analyzed the bear hair samples, identifying 563 individual grizzly bears, then used statistical models to estimate the total number of bears.

The Northern Continental Divide grizzly population is one of five grizzly bear recovery zones located in portions of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Washington. Grizzly bears also occur north of the border in Canada and in Alaska.

In the Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem, in northwestern Montana, the grizzly population is the smallest in the state, about 40 bears. FWP’s work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to boost this population by transplanting a limited number of young female bears has met with some success and a recent set back. The two female bears released into this ecosystem in 2008 died about two months after their release—one was struck by a train and the other shot and killed at a residence outside of Noxon The work to augment the grizzly population in the Cabinet Yaak Ecosystem will continue.

The ultimate good news would be that grizzly bears are finding ways to interbreed between some recovery zones. IGBC scientists and the U.S. Geological Survey recommended genetic testing to discover whether grizzly bears in the Yellowstone region have interbred with grizzlies from elsewhere.

“Interbreeding between grizzly bear recovery areas is important insurance for the future because it will maintain the genetic diversity they need to withstand diseases and other pressures on them,” said Smith.

In the meantime, Montana’s grizzly bears are experiencing significant reductions and changes in key habitat, fragmentation of travel corridors from one ecosystem to other, changes in foods available to them and increased contact with humans.

“The successful management of grizzly bear populations includes a commitment to address the challenges posed by the many environmental changes the bears face,” Smith said.

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HISTORICAL NOTE:

Montanans’ early commitment to maintaining grizzly bear populations is apparent—the state contains all or portions of four of the six areas in the lower 48 states identified by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for grizzly bear recovery.

Grizzlies were never eliminated from Montana as they were elsewhere. Their numbers probably bottomed in the 1920s. At that time, changes were made to secure the grizzly bear’s future, including designating grizzlies a “game animal” in 1923, the first such designation of the species in the lower 48 states. Early prohibitions on the use of dogs to hunt bears, outlawing baiting, closing seasons and other measures also allowed grizzly bears to survive in portions of western Montana.

MT.gov

USGS

Ledger- Enquirer