Yellowstone National Park’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 kilograms in preparation for the long winter ahead, scientists say, they 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,” US Geological Survey grizzly researcher Chuck Schwartz said.
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 1.8m tall and top 270kg. They have been known to peel off a man’s face with a single swipe of their massive, clawed paws.
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, Montana, on July 28. A month earlier, a botanist from Wyoming was killed by a bear shortly after the animal woke up from being tranquilized by researchers.
However, 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 because of 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,” Natural Resources Defense Council’s Louisa Wilcox said. “We can expect more conflicts and we are getting it.”
Government scientists said the two fatal maulings came too early in the year for whitebark pine to have played a role. Bears typically don’t start gorging themselves on the troves of pine nuts that are stashed by squirrels until the middle of this month.
However, the attacks highlighted the hazards of a region that is home to an estimated 580 grizzlies and visited by more than 3 million people a year. Officials said the maulings should serve as a warning as bears begin to push to lower elevations. Adult males will need to gain on average 22kg in the next few months to last through the winter.
“Right now, every god-dang dead cow down in this country’s got grizzlies on them,” said Mark Bruscino, a bear specialist with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department in Cody. “We’ve already had a couple of reports of bears on the gut piles of hunter-killed elk. Road-killed deer have bears on them.”
Hazardous encounters with humans are considered most likely outside Yellowstone National Park, in occupied areas along the fringes of the bears’ 36,260km² wilderness habitat.
Hunters — their high-powered rifles notwithstanding — are particularly exposed because they do exactly what the experts say not to: They sneak around in the underbrush at dawn and dusk, often alone and making elk calls to lure in big game — and the occasional hungry bear.
At Stillwater Outfitters near Cooke City, a half kilometer up the road from the campground maulings, owner Mary Robison said her clients were “definitely a lot more sketchy now” about running into bears.
Robison, a backcountry runner and hiker, said she had a too-casual attitude about grizzlies in the past.
“Now when I’m running, every two minutes I’m yelling something or I’m singing” to warn bears of her approach, she said.
While fatal encounters remain very 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.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was