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August 23, 2010 in City
Hungry bears could be trouble in Yellowstone
Beetles decimated favorite food source
A grizzly bear walks across a road near Mammoth, Wyo., in Yellowstone Park in May 2009. Hazardous encounters with humans are considered most likely outside Yellowstone National Park, in occupied areas along the fringes of the bears’ 14,000-square-mile wilderness habitat.
(Full-size photo)
BILLINGS – Yellowstone’s grizzlies are going to be particularly hungry this fall, and that means more dangerous meetings with humans in a year that is already the area’s deadliest on record.
Scientists report that a favorite food of many bears, nuts from whitebark pine cones, is scarce. So as grizzlies look to put on some major pounds in preparation for the long winter ahead, scientists say, the bears will be looking for another source of protein – meat – and running into trouble along the way.
Wildlife managers already report bears coming down off the mountains and into areas frequented by hunters, berry pickers and hikers.
“Pack your bear spray: There’s going to be run-ins,” said grizzly researcher Chuck Schwartz with the U.S. Geological Survey.
Two people have been fatally mauled by grizzlies so far this year in Wyoming and Montana. Experts said that’s the most in one year in at least a century for the Yellowstone region, which also includes parts of Idaho.
The bears in both instances were later killed.
Full-grown Yellowstone bears can stand 6 feet tall and top 600 pounds. They have been known to peel off a man’s face with a single swipe of a massive, clawed paw.
In the latest attack, a Michigan man was killed and two others injured when an undernourished bear and her three cubs marauded through a crowded campground near Cooke City, Mont., on July 28. A month earlier, a botanist from Cody, Wyo., was killed by a bear shortly after the animal woke up from being tranquilized by researchers.
And it’s not just humans at risk.
Yellowstone’s grizzlies were recently ordered back onto the threatened species list by a federal judge who cited in part a decline in whitebark pine.
Beetles, apparently surviving winters in larger numbers due to less frequently freezing temperatures, have decimated vast stands of the high-altitude trees. In some areas studied by researchers, more than 70 percent of trees have been killed.
While bears aren’t starving, the loss of whitebark is driving increasing numbers of conflicts with humans.
“Every year is now a bad year for whitebark pine,” said Louisa Wilcox with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “We can expect more conflicts, and we are getting it.”
While fatal encounters remain rare for humans, it is not so uncommon for bears to die after they run into people.
Twenty-two grizzlies are known to have died or been removed this year in and around Yellowstone National Park. Most were killed or relocated by wildlife officials because they had attacked people, acted aggressively or destroyed livestock or property.
The record number of bear deaths, 79, came in 2008 – another poor year for whitebark pine.
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lewis8457 on August 23 at 8:30 a.m.
they are warning people but any one gets hurt the bears get it.
so mama bear of a couple weeks ago was starving to death and got killed for her effort to feed her cubs.
will man ever be honest again with the animals or his god? I think not the gun nuts are going to kill them until they are all gone. for the sake of our protection….HUH!
and sadly most of the nuts are wearing forest ranger uniforms.
Itsgodswill on August 23 at 9:06 a.m.
Americans won’t be happy until everything is dead, that’s all there is to it.
Thoreau on August 23 at 9:56 a.m.
How the hell do you make a connection between “the gun nuts” and this story? Is the oil spill also to blame? What about Obama? Or better yet, somehow connect the wolf debate to this. Lewis, if you were standing in the wilderness with a firearm, and a bear was chewing on your face, I think you’d pull the trigger.
Itsgodswill on August 24 at 2:50 p.m.
I’d have a lot more respect for somebody who killed a bear in self defense rather then have however many people come trap the bear, tranquilize it, then “destroy” it…