Tag Archives: grizzly bear research

Young ‘conflict bears’ not always chronic offenders

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Young nuisance bears aren’t especially likely to re-offend after relocation . . .

Yearling grizzly bears busted for getting into trouble and relocated are not any more likely to offend again than bears with a clean rap sheet.

“If a bear gets in trouble, it doesn’t mean it’s a chronic offender,” said Mark Haroldson, who conducted a study for the U.S. Geological Survey in Bozeman.

Although the research is still preliminary, Haroldson said the data came partly from information collected in the late 1970s and 1980s as bear managers sought to reverse the decline in grizzly bear populations in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem by separating young bears from conflict mothers. The thought was that the mothers might be teaching the yearlings bad behavior.

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Biologists look for ways to preserve grizzlies after delisting

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Once the feds remove the grizzly bear from the endangered species list, what happens then? . . .

The grizzly bear answers to a lot of names.

Biologists call it Ursus arctos. They also describe it as an “ecological engineer” or “keystone predator.”

Wordy members of the general public call grizzlies “charismatic megafauna.” Others call them “vermin.” While running for president in 2008, Arizona Sen. John McCain famously derided studying grizzlies as a classic example of “Washington, D.C., pork.”

McCain later apologized for misunderstanding the value of Montana grizzly bear researcher Kate Kendall’s DNA hair analysis…

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Researchers start another round of grizzly bear trapping

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It must be spring. Biologists have begun grizzly capture operations in Northwest Montana . . .

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service and tribal wildlife managers have begun trapping bears in Northwest Montana.

The trapping is part of a population monitoring study of grizzly bears that involves seasonal scientific capture operations in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem.

The study of grizzly bear distribution and population trends is vital to ongoing recovery of grizzlies, according to FWP officials.

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Environmental group sues USGS for NW Montana grizzly bear data

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The Alliance for the Wild Rockies is annoyed with federal foot-dragging . . .

A conservation group is suing the U.S. Geological Survey for information on threatened grizzly bears in northwestern Montana.

The Alliance for the Wild Rockies says the USGS failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request for reports and findings on the Cabinet-Yaak Grizzly Bear DNA Project.

The project aims to give researchers a better idea of the number of bears in that area through DNA from hair samples.

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Ethyl the grizzly taking the tour

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Researchers are having a good time tracking the extensive wanderings of Ethyl, a 20-year-old female grizzly . . .

The 20-year-old female grizzly Ethyl has become a seeker, a wanderer.

The Montana bear hasn’t been acting her age, and fortunately researchers – with a tracking collar – have been able to document her impressive journey from her home state to North Idaho. They lost track of her exact location in late December, but starting next month they expect to pick up her signal again.

They’re anxious to know where she ended up for hibernation, and where she’ll venture next.

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Grizzly studies may provide help for human obesity

News,

This New York Times article by Kevin Corbet has some fascinating information about grizzly hibernation. It turns out that the physical changes associated with grizzly bear hibernation are extensive and amazing and may provide clues for controlling human obesity . . .

Clinically speaking, about 1.5 billion people worldwide are overweight. According to the World Health Organization, more than 10 percent of the world’s adults are obese, arguably making them the largest patient population in existence. We can debate the causes, but the long-term consequences of obesity — diabetes, heart disease, cancer — place huge burdens on our society. Public health campaigns have made little impression on this spreading medical crisis.

The biotechnology industry, where I work, strives to develop therapies for the greatest unmet medical needs. Can it provide a solution to a problem for which, so far, there have been few clinical responses? Only three drugs are currently approved for long-term treatment of obesity; they promote moderate weight loss and often have significant side effects.

Why don’t we have better options? It’s not as if very smart people with lots of resources aren’t trying.

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A ‘rock-solid minimum’ of 42 grizzlies in Cabinet-Yaak

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Solid data on the population of grizzly bears in the Cabinet-Yaak region . . .

How many hairs does it take to make a grizzly bear?

About 11,000 tufts, snagged in special barbed-wire snares scattered throughout the Cabinet and Yaak regions of northwest Montana, cooked down to evidence of roughly 42 grizzlies in 2012. The groundbreaking research unveiled at the winter gathering of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee in Missoula marked the first time that area has had a solid population number for the rare bears.

“That’s the rock-solid minimum count we detected,” research leader Kate Kendall told the committee Tuesday. The number includes 38 grizzlies identified by their unique DNA plus four more known, collared bears that didn’t show up in the hair samples. When some tentative data about visiting bears or bears that died during the study gets added in, the figure could grow to 54.

The number’s important because the fate of grizzlies in the Cabinet-Yaak area influences everything from logging and mining to hiking and hunting…

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Researchers find grizzlies not heavily dependent on whitebark pine nuts

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The grizzly bear delisting saga continues . . .

Grizzly bears in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem have a varied diet and are minimally affected by the decline in the number of whitebark pine trees, federal research found.

The findings were presented Thursday in Bozeman at a meeting of the Yellowstone Ecosystem Subcommittee of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee. The subcommittee voted 10-4 to accept the research findings. It also gave preliminary approval to a motion that recommends the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service remove federal protections for the bears, currently listed as “threatened.”

The USFWS delisted the bears in 2007, but a federal judge returned the protection two years later, saying the effect of the decline in whitebark pine trees on bears wasn’t given adequate consideration. Whitebark pine nuts are a key food source for grizzlies as they prepare for hibernation.

Research found that grizzly bears eat more than 200 types of food, 75 of them frequently. That means when one food source is low, as the whitebark pine is, they find another, said Frank van Manen, interagency study team leader.

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See also: Grizzly Bear Subcommittee Recommends Delisting in Yellowstone

Fate of some grizzly populations tied to long-term food supply

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Although this article centers on the Yellowstone area, it includes lots of good general information on grizzly bear diet and and population management . . .

High above the trees, in the rocky slopes of the Absarokas, one-calorie morsels scurried from the light. They crawled under rocks and in dark shadows. The army cutworm moths come from as far as Kansas and Nebraska where farmers curse them as an agricultural pest. In the Absarokas, they’re something very different: one of several key ingredients to the survival of the grizzly bear.

One day in late July, Cody science teacher Dale Ditolla watched as nine bears gathered in the talus of a mountain bowl, miles outside of Meeteetse. The bears looked like dogs in search of buried bones. They lifted and heaved stones the size of frying pans between their legs, sending them tumbling down the mountainside. Their salad plate-sized paws swiped at scampering moths.

Counting multiple grizzlies at this site is a relatively new trend. Few lived in this part of Wyoming 30 years ago.

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Grizzly bear monitoring continues in Glacier Park

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Now in its ninth year, an interagency grizzly bear study led by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks will be active in Glacier National Park. Here’s the press release . . .

A long-term interagency program to monitor grizzly bear population trends in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem will continue at Glacier National Park this year.

Bait stations, automated cameras, and traps are used to capture and monitor grizzly bears within the park. Bait stations and trap sites are marked with brightly colored warning and closure signs. Visitors are asked to respect posted signs and not enter sites where grizzly bear traps or bait stations are present.

Glacier National Park wildlife biologists attempt to maintain a sample of up to 10 radio-collared female grizzly bears out of an estimated population of 300 grizzly bears living in the park. Trapping efforts will continue through October at various locations throughout Glacier National Park.

The interagency grizzly bear monitoring program began in 2004 and is led by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. Participating agencies include: National Park Service, United States Forest Service, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, and the Blackfeet Nation.