Grizzly Numbers Stable, But Habitat Dwindles Biologists Try To Balance Space Needs Of Bears, Humans Near Yellowstone
Wildlife biologists are trying to figure out how to accommodate the space needs of both grizzly bears and humans around Yellowstone National Park.
As the grizzly recovers from its designation as a threatened species, more people are moving into the land in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho surrounding the park, raising concerns about the possibility of conflicts between the bears and humans.
Greater Yellowstone Coalition studies indicate if the grizzly bear recovery area around Yellowstone was considered a separate state, it would have the fastest growing population in America.
Development in what is considered the “core” area of grizzly development - Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and nearby wilderness areas - is prohibited.
“I’m much more optimistic than pessimistic,” said Dave Moody, a bear coordinator for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. “Things are looking pretty good in the core of the habitat area.”
But Moody and Tim Stevens, a bear specialist for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, said national park land alone cannot sustain the grizzly population growth needed to remove the bear from the threatened-species list.
Moody said that if people living on the fringes of the recovery area can adapt to the needs of the bears, then there is no reason grizzly populations cannot continue to grow.
But a growing human population in the area makes more contact and more bear deaths a certainty, Moody said.
Under U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rules, four grizzly sows can be killed each year by humans with no impact on recovery plans. But if more than four are killed, the agency must wait a year before considering any efforts to remove the species from the threatened species list.
But Moody said the mortality number is based on an estimated grizzly population of 250, a number he said is artificially low. He estimated the number of bears in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho at closer to 500.
The low limit for allowed mortality, combined with the growing human population, means the grizzly may never be moved off of the threatened-species list, he said.
“Not as long as we have the existing situation,” he said.
Meanwhile, growing development is threatening the grizzly, Stevens said.
“History tells us that as grizzly populations become habitat islands, you see a slow winking out of the grizzly bear population,” he said.
Development near the Montana towns of Bozeman and Livingston, and logging and mining operations in Wyoming’s Shoshone National Forest, are reducing the habitat available for the bears, Stevens said.
He added when bears and people compete for the same land, bears generally lose.
“In my opinion, we’re losing grizzly bear habitat,” he said. “Not enough is being done to protect habitat.”
Stevens said he believes the estimate of 250 for the grizzly population is accurate.
xxxx Rules Under U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rules, four grizzly sows can be killed each year by humans with no impact on recovery plans.