Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Erin Edge, Rocky Mountain Regional Associate

What’s in store for grizzlies in the lower 48? After more than 30 years of protection under the Endangered Species Act, there are an estimated 1600-1700 grizzly bears south of the Canadian border. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other land and wildlife management agencies have made significant progress restoring grizzly bears to a portion of their historic range. But much remains to be accomplished to assure our children and grandchildren will be able to enjoy and appreciate this noble symbol of America’s natural heritage.

Currently, the majority of grizzly bears can be found in just two major ecosystems with the rest scattered across much smaller subpopulations. Here’s a quick breakdown of all grizzly bear populations found in the lower 48:

• The 9,600-square mile Northern Continental Divide ecosystem (NCDE) in Montana includes Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness, and is home to an estimated 900-1,000 grizzly bears. This population is relatively stable and has continued to increase slightly each year.
• The 9,200-square mile greater Yellowstone ecosystem (GYE) includes Yellowstone National Park and an estimated 600 to 700 grizzly bears. This population appears to have stabilized at current levels.
• The 2,200-square mile Selkirk ecosystem in northeastern Washington, northern Idaho and southern Canada has fewer than 100 grizzly bears with a slight increase each year.
• The 2,600-square mile Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem in northwestern Montana and northern Idaho has fewer than 50 grizzly bears. This population continues to decline slightly each year, but the decline appears to be tapering off.
• The 9,500-square mile North Cascades ecosystem in Washington has fewer than 20 grizzly bears and very little is known about them. In order to recover this population, grizzly bears will likely need to be added to the area from other populations.
• The 5,600-square mile Bitterroot ecosystem that straddles western Montana and central Idaho is currently void of grizzly bears but has been identified as containing excellent bear habitat and is key to connecting the GYE and NCDE populations.

The long-term survival of any species depends on the number and size of individual sub-populations, survival rates of each and connectivity between populations – the larger and more connected, the better the bears can withstand natural disasters, disease or extreme food shortages. For example, the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem is currently  disconnected from the larger and more robust NCDE population. That’s why the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state agencies are moving bears from the NCDE to the Cabinet-Yaak in an effort to save this population. This is desperately needed for the isolated North Cascades population as well, but politics has delayed grizzly bear augmentations here.

Securing quality habitat, improving human tolerance and minimizing conflicts between grizzly bears and people, particularly on private lands within or between identified recovery areas, will continue to be an ongoing challenge. But by working together, we can make sure that grizzly bears have safe passage to move across the landscape, thereby improving genetic diversity and boosting bear populations in more vulnerable ecosystems.

To that end, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently released its draft Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE) Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy. The strategy is intended to guide the management of grizzly bears and habitat protections on public lands after federal Endangered Species Act protections are removed. Among other things, the strategy would create a Primary Conservation Area, three additional management zones, and two Demographic Connectivity Areas. This geographic arrangement is designed to maintain a stable core population while providing varying degrees of protection in key linkage areas to encourage bears to disperse.

The Service has also proposed revisions to the Greater Yellowstone Recovery Plan that may change future population estimates. The GYE is the most isolated population in the lower 48 and has been hovering close to federal recovery objectives for several years. It is critical that bears in this population are able to expand into secure habitats that will once again link them with the more genetically diverse NCDE population and/or other grizzly bear populations.

As we close out Bear Awareness Week, we would like to celebrate the significant efforts put into grizzly bear recovery. It was humans that drove bears from an estimated 50,000 animals to fewer than 1,000 bears over approximately 170 years. And it is humans that must bring them back. Grizzly bears are the second slowest reproducing land mammal in North America, so recovery will not happen overnight. However, multiple conservation groups, local communities and agencies are dedicating efforts to ensure a place for grizzly bears in the lower 48 states.

The future of grizzly bears remains uncertain, but as Abraham Lincoln said, “The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.” Together with our partners, we will continue to work one day at a time to minimize grizzly bear deaths and improve social tolerance through continued outreach and on-the-ground coexistence projects.

Erin Edge, Rockies and Plains Associate

In the spring of 2009, two grizzly bears named Rainy and Scarhip were seen frolicking through fields and across highways. Soon thereafter, both bears were captured near Seeley Lake, Montana and fitted with tracking collars. To have any chance of survival, Rainy and Scarhip would have to avoid a variety of temptations, including garbage cans, birdfeeders, and chicken coops – all containing delicious snacks for a hungry bear.

Needless to say, the outlook was not good, and Scarhip was getting into people’s yards almost immediately. But food attractants aren’t the only threat to grizzly bears, and in October of 2009, Scarhip was mistakenly shot and killed by a black hear hunter. Meanwhile, Rainy stayed out of trouble all summer long before heading to her den north of Lake Alva. The following spring she emerged with two cubs and spent the next few months in the Placid Lake area. Then, suddenly, on July 14th, she was documented near Seeley Lake again, feeding on garbage, grain, bird seed and dog food. Females with cubs need as many calories as they can find, and Rainy had hit the jackpot.

That was the beginning of the end for Rainy. Before long, she and her cubs were climbing onto porches, damaging buildings and approaching people. Due to escalating concerns for human safety, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks decided to trap all three bears. But it was too late — one of Rainy’s cubs was hit by a car crossing Highway 83. A month later, FWP trapped Rainy and her remaining cub and sent them to a zoo in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Sadly, the cub died a year later from a rare fungal infection, while Rainy still remains at the zoo.

The saddest part of the story, however, is that the loss of these bears was almost entirely avoidable. Simple solutions like electric fencing are highly effective at securing attractants like bee yards, apple orchards, lambing pastures, chicken coops and compost piles. Other successful deterrents include bear-resistant garbage enclosures and using livestock guard dogs, range riders and alternative grazing methods.

Some of these tools can be expensive, but there are resources available to help residents protect their property and prevent conflict. For example, Defenders of Wildlife started a program in 2010 to help pay for smaller fencing projects. So far the program has secured 58 sites in Montana and helped save grizzly bears.

Take the Morris family, for instance. They’re a 4-H family from northwest Montana with pigs, goats, sheep and chickens. Last year, the Morrises routinely had grizzly bears on their property and had Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks on “speed dial.” They wanted to install a sturdy electric fence but didn’t think they could afford one. FWP directed the Morrises to our incentive program, which helped pay for installing the fence they wanted — a win-win solution for both bears and people. The Morrises finished their electric fence last October and are expecting local wildlife residents to be quite “shocked” when they come around this spring.

Since 1997, Defenders of Wildlife has also been compensating ranchers for livestock losses to grizzly bears. This year, Montana will take this program over through the state’s Livestock Loss Board. Though not a perfect solution, compensation programs help mitigate the financial impact on ranchers and their families. But compensation only addresses conflicts after the damage has already been done. It’s far better to find ways to prevent conflicts from occurring in the first place. And on the rare occasions when these tools aren’t enough, wildlife managers need the flexibility to relocate or remove grizzly bears that are deemed a serious threat to humans.

Aldo Leopold, the grandfather of wildlife conservation, once wrote, “Relegating grizzlies to Alaska is about like relegating happiness to heaven; one may never get there.”

By the late 1800s, this became a real fear. An estimated population of 50,000 grizzly bears plummeted to just a few hundred in less than one percent of their historic range. Fortunately, grizzly bears were protected under the Endangered Species Act in 1975 and have been making a strong comeback ever since. Today, there are approximately 1,700 grizzly bears in the lower 48. Most of us have welcomed these magnificent creatures back to our landscape. But it will take concerted efforts by all of us living in grizzly country to ensure continued recovery of the species. Ultimately, the fate of grizzly bears in Montana and across the West still rests in our hands.

I hope grizzlies are never relegated to Alaska nor happiness to heaven. And hopefully, by working together, we can ensure that our children and grandchildren can continue to find both right here in Montana.

To learn more about what you can do to coexist with grizzly bears, visit defenders.org/GotGrizzlies.

Originally published by Montana Public Radio

Happy Bear Awareness Week, everyone! To kick things off this year, I thought I’d share a story about what inspired me to get involved with fighting to protect grizzly bears in Montana.

My first bear encounter

In the late ‘90s, I was working in Yellowstone National Park as a waitress, a city girl inexperienced about wilderness. Wildlife, in my mind, consisted only of the opossums, deer, raccoons and squirrels that had frequented my neighborhood in Missouri. Little did I know, my summer job would forever change my conception of wildlife – and my entire life.

One sunny day I set out on a hike with friends into Hayden Valley. The grass was as tall as me, gold and thick, and bison grazed in every direction. Suddenly, we noticed a grizzly bear off in the distance. My instinct was to run in the opposite direction, and I actually did briefly until a friend asked where I was going. Sheepishly, I stopped. We took out our binoculars and the grizzly stood up, her coat gleaming in the afternoon sun. Then, the small brown head of bear cub popped out of the grass. Finally, a third grizzly bear emerged, slightly larger than the little cub. Three grizzlies! At once, all three bears dropped into the tall grass and disappeared.

Media headlines were racing though my head: “Female grizzly attacks hikers to defend her cubs!” I was horrified and certain that she was going to pop up right in front of us—a mad, mama bear—but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Soon, she reappeared farther off, near a wet, muddy hole. She lay down on her back watching the other two roll in the mud.

In that exact moment I was forever changed. All the information I had received about bears through movies, TV and news articles was inaccurate and sensational. This was beyond a doubt, what we humans like to call a “family moment.” The cubs were playing while mom soaked up some sunshine. I knew I had to better educate myself about bears and that I needed to share what I learned.

Helping people and grizzlies coexist

This moment comes to mind every spring when bears emerge from hibernation and we start gearing up for our summer field season. For the past 10 years, I’ve been working to promote tolerance and find ways for humans and grizzlies to coexist. My job is to make sure that people are doing their part to secure attractants so that bears can keep themselves out of trouble and continue to thrive on the landscape.

My colleague Russ Talmo and I got started early this year by participating in several workshops and outreach events. This included talking about raising chickens in bear country at two Montana Pastured Poultry Workshops hosted by the National Center for Appropriate Technology in cooperation with Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks. We also set up remote cameras at a lambing pasture on the Rocky Mountain Front and, while we didn’t catch any bears, we do have footage of a coyote, a skunk, raccoons and lots of sheep.

Right now grizzlies are out of their dens looking for food such as glacier lilies, spring grasses  and deer and elk that have died over the winter. But anthropogenic attractants like garbage, birdfeeders, livestock, bees and chickens can quickly lure a winter-starved grizzly. To help keep bears away from these potential food sources, Defenders started an Electric Fencing Incentive program three years ago that reimburses residents 50% of the cost of an electric fence around a bear attractant. Between 2010 and 2012 we completed 58 fences. This year our goal is to complete another 50 fencing projects, and we are well on our way with over 25 people signed up already to participate.  Additionally, we are working with livestock producers on larger electric fence projects, range rider programs and helping to purchase livestock guard dogs.

I’ll keep you posted as our field season gets under way. We have lots of coexistence projects to complete and lots of great stories to share from our partners, so stay tuned!

*NEW COLUMN*: A weekly homage to endangered species, large and small

Today is Endangered Species Day, and that means it’s time to pay homage to all those critters large and small, charismatic and not, that keep the world turning. Over the next several weeks, we’ll be highlighting a handful of imperiled plants and animals that benefit the environment and the economy, alternating each week between familiar and oft-forgotten wildlife. Each one is a vital part of the web of life that provides clean air, clean water and a healthy environment for generations to come. And each one should give us a chance to reflect on the incredible diversity of plants and animals that we are fighting to protect.

“Teddy’s” bear

To coincide with the end of Bear Awareness Week, we’re starting with the most iconic of all animals—the teddy bear.

Ever wonder where those cute and cuddly stuffed kids toys got their name? Back in 1902, President Theodore (“Teddy”) Roosevelt was on a hunting expedition down south and refused to shoot a Louisiana black bear that others had captured and tied to a tree. A newspaper cartoonist poked fun at the President by drawing a fuzzy, stuffed bear that he called “Teddy’s bear.” The name stuck.

The Louisiana black bear (Ursus americanus luteolus) is subspecies of the American black bear that was once found throughout the bottomland hardwood forests of eastern Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and southern Arkansas. At the time of President Roosevelt’s teddy bear incident, nearly all of them were gone and populations remained low throughout the 20^th century. By 1992 when the species was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, just a few hundred survived as a result of habitat loss, poaching and vehicle collisions.

Today, Louisiana black bears are on a path to recovery thanks to increased awareness and local conservation efforts. Through the efforts of the Black Bear Conservation Committee, a coalition of local businesses, concerned citizens and wildlife agencies, bears have become a source of pride and a hot commodity. Each year, between 5,000 and 7,000 people attend the Bayou Teche Bear Festival in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, to learn about bears, take field trips and enjoy good food and music. The festival was named the #1 “Best New Event” in 2006 by the Louisiana Association of Fairs and Festivals and has since expanded to include bird watching as well.

Other towns are getting in on the action too. Some 6,000 people attend the Great Delta Bear Affair in Rolling Hills, Mississippi to tour local wilderness areas and give their best Roosevelt impersonation.

In 2001, wildlife watching in Louisiana totaled nearly $370 million even before the influx of tourism dollars for the bear festival. It’s investments like these that make wildlife conservation a boon to local economies in addition to a vital part of the environment.

Click here to learn more about what Defenders is doing to protect America’s bears.

Celebrate Endangered Species Day!

If you’re not already partying down for ES Day, take a look at this list of events. Defenders is officially partaking in at least two of these (listed below), so drop on by if you’re in the neighborhood.

Endangered Species Day Fair in DC
Friday, May 20, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. (Stop by the Defenders table!)
U.S. Botanic Garden
100 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20001
Washington, DC 20001

Live Wolverine and Movie at ZooMontana
Meet Cass, a wolverine from ZooMontana then watch PBS Nature’s feature documentary, “Chasing the Phantom.” Stay for a panel discussion with the film’s director and other wolverine experts including Defenders own David Gaillard.

Friday, May 20, 5:30 p.m.
2100 S Shiloh Road
Billings, MT
Get more details here.

Get the Bear Facts

Download our Saving America’s Bears fact sheet to learn about the threats facing bears in the United States today, what Defenders of Wildlife is doing to protect them—and what you can do to help.

Bear Awareness Week continues! And you can celebrate from the comfort of your own couch, thanks to a new PBS NATURE series.

Bears of the Last Frontier follows adventurer and bear biologist Chris Morgan on a year-long motorcycle odyssey deep into Alaska’s bear country to explore the amazing resiliency and adaptability of these majestic animals as they struggle to make a living in five dramatically diverse Alaskan ecosystems: coastal, urban, mountain, tundra, and pack ice. Three of the eight bear species in the world – brown bears, black bears, and polar bears – can be found in Alaska.

Part 3 of this series – Arctic Wanderers – will follow bears on Alaska’s North Slope.  Featuring the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska (NPR-A), this episode will look at how the Reserve is one of our nation’s best-kept wild secrets – featuring the vast wilderness, Alaskans that live and subside upon its land and waters, and the diverse populations of wildlife that call the Reserve home. These special areas of the Reserve deserve the strongest possible protections – wildlife, and the surrounding communities that call the Reserve home depend upon its future.

Celebrate Bear Awareness Week with friends and attend a Bears of the Last Frontier public screening! To see a showing near you, visit alaskawild.org/nature.  Or if you want to catch the segment on your own TV, PBS Nature airs Sunday 8/7 CT (check your local listings to be sure).

Get the Bear Facts

Download our Saving America’s Bears fact sheet to learn about the threats facing bears in the United States today, what Defenders of Wildlife is doing to protect them—and what you can do to help.

Each year, Defenders celebrates some of America’s most iconic creatures during  Bear Awareness Week. And this year, we’re kicking it off with a species spotlight: grizzlies!

The slightly weathered appearance of this bear’s fur earned it the name “grizzly” back in the day.  At seven feet long and as much as 850 pounds, however, the grizzly bear is no shrinking violet. It can run as fast as 35 mph and smell food from miles away – putting those hound dogs to shame. A big muscular hump on its shoulders (which distinguishes it from a black bear) adds power for running and strength for digging. Grizzlies dig to create dens for winter hibernation, but also to find food.

Interestingly, the mighty grizzly bear also functions as the gardener in its forest and meadow home. Digging for food naturally tills the soil, which benefits the plants nearby. Undigested seeds from consumed fruit are spread freely through the bear’s waste. And salmon carcasses carried into forests decay and add important nutrients back into the soil – grizzly compost!

Grizzlies eat just about everything: grasses, seeds (esp. whitebark pine nuts), fruits, insects, fish, carrion… and even caribou. They also need to eat a lot in order to build up enough fat reserves (up to three pounds a day) to sustain them through hibernation, which lasts from five to eight months.

In case you missed it…

The New York Times must have Bear Awareness Week on its calendar! In a feature that ran yesterday called, “Where the Wild Things Are,” a piece by Ted O’Callahan focuses on a the bears of Kodiak Island. Click here to read “It’s a Bear’s World. Visitors Welcome” and learn more about the unique cousin to the grizzly.

Get the Bear Facts

Download our Saving America’s Bears fact sheet to learn about the real threats facing bears in the United States today, what Defenders of Wildlife is doing to protect them—and what you can do to help.