Grizzly Bears in the US

GRIZZLY BEARS_ ursus arctos horribillis

November 8, 2017 Written by Jennifer Mahan 

A yellowstone grizzly and her cubs. https://www.usgs.gov/news/return-yellowstone-grizzly-bear?qt-news_science_products=1#qt-news_science_products

What's the deal with Grizzly Bears?

               The Grizzly Bear. A subspecies of the Brown Bear in northern latitudes, the great symbol of the California republic, a creature capable of giving birth during hibernation and eating the mass equivalent of 360 quarter-pounders from McDonald’s in one day. Woah.  These guys can grow up to 800 pounds, and although physically massive, grizzly bears are not huge hunters. These creatures are omnivorous and use their keen sense of smell to consume berries, plants, insects, fish, nuts, and other dead animals, digging for food with their extensively large claws ("Grizzly Bear Recovery"). The warmer bulking season prepares them for long periods of hibernation in dens they carve out of hillsides.

 

Where do they live, where do they go?

Grizzlies thrive in a multitude of habitats, from plains and semi-alpine meadows to tundra and forests. They exist abundantly in Alaska and Canada, with more fragmented populations in the northwestern states. Grizzlies are not ultra territorial and have “home ranges” common with other individuals, with the defined area determined by gender - males occupy about 600 square miles each, whereas their female counterparts occupy about 1/4 to 1/8 as much area ("Grizzly Bear Recovery").

What threatens their very existence?

The large areas they require is mostly to blame for their decline, in conjunction with human conflict, habitat destruction, and climate change. During western expansion, territory clashes began with settlers and bears. Their populations then steeply dropped as conflict arose with bears invading farm livestock, bird feeders, bee hives, fruit orchards, and garbage receptacles. A pure, isolated 600 sq miles that some grizzlies require cannot exist as a reality in today’s society - commercial and residential developments, agriculture, roads and railways, and energy generation plants fragment their habitats, removing them from other populations and removing their security. Changing climatic conditions are also affecting grizzly habitats, causing them to hibernate later.  And though grizzlies are resourceful when it comes to food, climatic changes altering availability of their food supply proves detrimental ("Help Us").

Bear cubs consuming trash, one threat to sustained healthy populations. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/05/30/bear-cubs-play-with-garbage_n_5420661.html

When were grizzlies listed as endangered?

The above reasons, as well as intense population decline down to 2% its original population in the contiguous US, is why the US Fish & Wildlife Service listed grizzles as a threatened species in 1975 ("Grizzly Bears & the Endangered").  Grizzly populations dropped from 50,000 in North America, from the Pacific to the midwest plains, to 2,000 in much more fragmented areas ("Help Us Protect"). At one point only 1,000 bears in five or six populations were thought to remain.

What's the plan, man?

Since the implementation of a recovery plan in 1993, 6 main areas are committed to restoring the grizzly population where the grizzly has existed or is supposed to exist, and where there is positive potential to revive or maintain the species ("Grizzly Bear"):

                  Yellowstone - 9,200 sqmi (Montana, Wyoming, Idaho)

                  North Cascades - 10,000 sqmi

                  Selkirk - 2,000 sqmi (Idaho, Washington)

                  Cabinet-Yaak - 2,600 (Montana, Idaho)

                  Bitterroot - 5,600 sqmi (Montana, Idaho)

                  North Continental Divide - 9,600 sq mi

Grizzly habitats 15 years after implementation of the recovery plan.  https://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/es/species/mammals/grizzly/Grizzly_bear_recovery_plan.pdf





               Though each of these areas has their own specific recovery plan, the US Fish and Wildlife Service outlined 5 criteria to be met within 6 years in the 1993 plan to avoid permanent loss of grizzlies:

                  1 create reasonable population goals for species recovery

                  2 create a method of determining population

                  3 determine limiting factors responsible for making grizzlies threatened

                  4 create measures to remove these limiting factors, so grizzly populations may be self-sufficiently reproductive

                  5 establish recovered populations in each of these 6 areas.

The plan was as follows:

_ Limit sources of human-bear conflict

            _ Limit human-sources habitat degradation and loss

            _ Improve habitat and territory security

            _ Understand limiting factors through the relationship of bear habitat vs density

            _ Develop reintroduction techniques

            _ Improve public education and relations to deter human interest conflict

            _ Continue species and habitat research to augment informed decisions


               The overarching goal of the recovery plan is to delist the species as threatened, and each of the six recovery areas have differing levels of potential that make them more suitable for grizzly re-colonization or avoiding population fragmentation ("Grizzly Bear"). Some of the specific plans, as in the North Cascades Ecosystem, involve several alternatives including releasing up to 5 grizzlies as needed, or restoring biodiversity of the ecosystem to benefit grizzlies ("Draft Environmental"). Overall, the FWS’s goal was "to maintain a minimum population size of at least 500 animals,” a number representing the population needed to avoid loss of genetic diversity ("Grizzly Bear").

Controversy Ignites!

The plan was revised in 2006, and although the USFWS removed Yellowstone grizzles from the threatened list in 2017 and the IUCN now sees them as a population of “least concern,” they are still listed as endangered elsewhere. There is much opposition between the Trump administration and national park officials, who support this removal, and conservationists, who believe grizzlies have been prematurely delisted. In the past year, Californians have been torn on deciding if grizzlies should be reintroduced to their former Sierra Nevada range ("Removal"). The grizzly population controversy persists, and there is still much to do in terms of protection. 

What can you do?

_ Build electric fences around human-related bear attractors. This helps deter bears from becoming dependent on human resources. You can donate to install fences here.

_ “Adopt” a bear. Your donation can help with education and fence-building with the WWF here.

_ Protect grizzly habitats and wildlife corridors. This also increases the overall biodiversity of bear territories. 

_ Keep it clean! Simple acts of keeping the waterstream clean and making sure to control your trash help support the natural food sources of grizzlies.

Electric bear shock fence, protecting a grizzly from human conflict. http://www.wideopenspaces.com/9-ways-help-make-campsite-bear-proof/

Resources. 

_ Find the FWS 1996 recovery plan here. 

_ Learn more about grizzly bears here.

“Draft Environmental Impact Statement/Grizzly Bear Restoration Plan, North Cascades Ecosystem, Washington.” Federal Register, 13 Jan. 2017, www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/01/13/2017-00616/draft-environmental-impact-statementgrizzly-bear-restoration-plan-north-cascades-ecosystem.

“Grizzly Bear.” Official Web page of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/es/grizzlyBear.php.

“Grizzly Bears & the Endangered Species Act.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/bearesa.htm.

“Grizzly Bear Recovery Program.” Grizzly Bear Recovery Program - University Of Montana, www.cfc.umt.edu/grizzlybearrecovery/grizzly-bears/default.php.

Grizzly bear (Yellowstone DPS), www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/esa_works/profile_pages/YellowstoneGrizzlyBear.html.

“Help Us Protect Grizzly Bears.” Defenders of Wildlife, 29 July 2015, www.defenders.org/help-us-protect-grizzly-bears.

“Removal of Yellowstone Grizzlies From Endangered List Ignites Controversy.” National Geographic, National Geographic Society, 22 June 2017, news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/06/yellowstone-grizzly-bears-removed-endangered-species-list-threatened-conservation-spd/.