Bears
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Various pine beetles are attacking pines all over North America with an extraordinary vengeance. In Yellowstone the high valued whitebark pine, which grows, and grows but slowly, at high elevations continues under attack. This pine is especially valuable to grizzly bears who eat its fat rich nuts in the fall to fatten up. In years…
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The annual count of elk on Yellowstone’s northern range is in. It remains low compared to years past, but is about the same as a year ago — 6,738 elk compared to about 6600 in the last count, 9 months ago. The Northern Range herd has always been controversial with its numbers called wildly excessive…
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The Idaho Statesman has made a good compilation of recent newspaper editorials about the listing of the polar bear — the addition of the polar bear to the endangered species list. Story: Other Views: Polar bears and global warming. Idaho Statesman.
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Most listings nowadays, and in the past, have come from conservation groups forcing the species onto the “list,” but in an unusual move the Bush Administration has proposed listing the polar bear, which is suffering the effects of warming in the Arctic. That melts the ice the bears need to hunt from. The polar bear…
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Brodie Farquhar muses about hibernation and and two recent stories about it. Nap Time For Yellowstone Bears, But Others Still Awake. New West He wishes he could talk to Yellowstone grizzly biologists to see if warming is causing the bears to hibernate for shorter periods. I don’t know, but I do know that the availability…
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One reader asked that I post an essay I wrote about Tim Treadwell (and Werner Herzog). This is from my old web site, written about a year ago when “Grizzly Man” came out.
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Only $9000 paid in Montana in 2006, but the State of Wyoming paid $110,000. The direct explanation for the difference is far fewer livestock killed in Montana than Wyoming. Indirectly, however, the Wyoming compensation formula for grizzly losses is so generous that there is no incentive to protect livestock from grizzlies. A grizzly loss can…
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This is a big victory for those trying to protect the imperiled grizzly bear populations in extreme NW Montana (the Cabinet-Yaak population) and in the Panhandle of Idaho and NE Washington State (the Selkirk grizzly population). Story. By Perry Backus in the Missoulian