The Missoulian reports that the grizzly population centered on Yellowstone Park appears to be doing well. The article also discusses the Cabinet-Yaak Grizzly Bear Project in this corner of Montana . . .
The grizzly bear population around Yellowstone National Park appears to be stable and growing, according to experts in Wyoming.
A story in the Casper Star-Tribune reports that an estimated 608 grizzlies live in the Yellowstone ecosystem, an increase over last year’s estimated population of 593.
This is worth a read. The Missoulian has a write-up on a recently completed study on wolf reproductive success in Yellowstone Park. The findings should be applicable to other wolf populations . . .
A wolf pup growing up in Yellowstone National Park has a better chance of surviving if it has a big mama that lives in a big pack.
Those were the findings of a recent study published in the Journal of Animal Ecology that utilized 14 years of data collected on Yellowstone wolves.
“This is one of the few studies of large carnivores in the world to tease out what drives reproduction,” said Dan Stahler, lead author of the study and a biologist for Yellowstone’s Wolf Project team. “What’s fascinating is that, despite decades of research, we really didn’t know much about reproductive success and what are the triggers for failure.”
An environmental group wants a no-trapping buffer in the areas of Montana near Yellowstone Park to protect wolves that wander outside the boundaries . . .
A conservation group wants a trap-free buffer in Montana to protect wolves roaming outside Yellowstone National Park.
The Greater Yellowstone Coalition says the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission shouldn’t allow wolf trapping in three management units that cover southern Montana from the Absaroka Mountains to the Madison Range.
It could just be statistical anomaly, but there have been 16 grizzly bear deaths in the Yellowstone region this summer. Most are natural losses, but they are much higher than normal . . .
Bear biologists are refraining from assigning a single reason for a two-fold increase in the rate of natural grizzly bear deaths in the Yellowstone National Park region.
Ten of the 16 grizzlies that have met their ends this summer have died of natural causes, according to data from the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team.
Historically, humans are to blame for more than 75 percent of the bear deaths in the first half of the summer. While the rate is just 37 percent this year, it is derived from a small sample size, and biologists aren’t jumping to any conclusions.
The debate over the Grizzly’s status in the Yellowstone Park area continues . . .
Grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park will keep their threatened status for at least the next two to three years, as wildlife officials said Friday they plan to bolster their case that the species has recovered.
Federal and state officials insist there are enough bears in the three-state Yellowstone region to guard against a reversal of the decades-long effort to bring them back from near-extermination.
Slate posted a very lengthy, detailed piece by Jesicca Grose on Monday centered around the investigation of a pair of fatal grizzly bear attacks in Yellowstone National Park last year. Boing Boing, a very popular web log, just picked up on this, so there’s likely to be quite a bit of discussion of this article over the next few days . . .
A grizzly was ambling along the Yellowstone River on a clear day in late September 2011, when she lifted her nose up and smelled something familiar in the air. She couldn’t tell quite what it was, but it smelled like food. Maybe the shredded remains of a bison taken down by a wolf pack, its innards sloughing out of its stomach and onto the riverbank. The sow may have spent the day digging up pocket gophers, but a feast like this would really help her to pack on weight. Within eight weeks she’d be taking her two young cubs into a den in the side of a slope for the long Western winter. They needed fat, and soon.
After months of a diet consisting mostly of grass and nuts and roots, the scent of dead meat was impossible to resist. The mother grizzly walked in the direction of the carrion with her cubs scrambling along behind her. The bigger one, with the blond face, was probably closer on his mother’s heels, with his brother, the color of burnt sienna, lagging behind. The sow had to keep a close eye on her offspring. There was always the threat of male bears trying to kill her family. They knew she wouldn’t go into heat again as long as her cubs were with her.
The wolf population has remained stable at that “other” park the last couple of years . . .
Yellowstone National Park officials say the park’s wolf population has stabilized at about 100 wolves over the last two years.
Officials tell the Billings Gazette that represents about a 60 percent reduction from 2007 wolf numbers as elk populations have also declined.
From today’s Flathead Beacon . . .
Dueling attorneys for a conservation group and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offered starkly different opinions Monday about the future of the grizzly bear population in and around Yellowstone National Park, if the bear is taken off the threatened species list.