An uptick in the number of grizzly bear deaths this season in Yellowstone National Park has biologists looking for answers. Of the 16 bears that died, 10 passed away from natural causes, reports the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team.
“We’ve seen more natural mortality this year,” team leader Mark Haroldson told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. “It is something that we haven’t seen before.”
Typically, 75 percent of bear deaths that occur in the first half of the summer are human-related. This year, only 37 percent of deaths have been human-related.
“The fact that there were two females with cubs that were killed inflates the numbers a little bit,” Frank van Manen, study team leader, told the Jackson Hole News & Guide. “We’re seeing an aging of the population as well. It wouldn’t surprise me if we start to see more of these bears dying from old age.”
Van Manen’s team aims to determine whether the grizzly bear should remain a “threatened” species on the endangered species list. The bears were added to the list in 1975 when there were only 150 bears in Yellowstone. In 2010 biologists found that number had risen to 600 bears.
However, the Yellowstone grizzly population remains vulnerable. According to van Manen, the female population can only absorb up to 9 percent mortality, while the male population can absorb up to 15 percent mortality. Biologists estimate two bear deaths for every one that is detected, making the estimate for the summer’s overall mortality 8 percent.
Experts guess that among the bears dead from human-related causes is “Brownie,” one of the two yearling cubs of bear “399,” a mother grizzly made famous in Teton National Park for her decision to raise her cubs near the park’s main roads.
(via Missoulian)
Please do what you can to protect the bears, if they need to be put on the endangered list they should be protected! Do you know what happened to 399′s other cub Ash? It was reported that Ash was near Brownie around the time of the death but havn’t heard anything more. Thank you
One thing I noticed in Yellowstone is that the trees are way too close to the road. When I mentioned it to a ranger I was informed that they are trying to keep things as natural as possible so they wouldn’t cut trees close to the road. I’m sorry but having a road is totally “unnatural” so why not harves trees within 25 yrds of the roads so that people have a heads up when an animal is exiting the trees. Right now there is NO WAY to avoid an animal that pops out of the trees because they’re directly on the road at the point.
If people slow down, like they should in a National Park they wouldn’t hit the animals that are in their own natural habitat. The roads are cut through their natural habitat. Thank Goodness we still have National Parks to be able to see these wonderful creatures in the wild.