Grizzly Bear -Jeremiah Rogers

The Grizzly Bear

By Jeremiah Rogers

Description and Ecology of Organism: 

The Ursus arctic horribilis other wise known as the Grizzly Bear are massive animals. An adult female Grizzly weighs in around 200 to 400 pounds while a fully grown adult male can weigh in some where between 200 to 700 pounds. Adults will stand at 3 and a half feet at the shoulder. Grizzly's are one of the largest species of bears and they can be up to twice as large as a black bear. Grizzly's are also exceptionally fast runners; a full grown bear can run up to forty miles an hour.  There prey include trout, elk, insects, rodents, roots, pine nuts, and other large mammals. Grizzly's will mate in the spring but actual impregnation doesn't happen until the fall which makes sure that birth happens in the winter. There is between one to three offspring. These bears are best suited to live in forests and meadows with territories ranging up to 550 miles for females and 2,000 miles for males. These bears are best suited to live in forests and meadows with territories ranging up to 550 miles for females and 2,000 miles for males. Grizzly bears also hibernate in the winter. This is a process in which they don't eat, defecate, urinate, or drink rather surviving on a layer of fat while they sleep through the winter. 

Geographic and Population Changes:

Grizzly bears today can be found in the lower 48 states, and costal regions of Alaska and Eurasia. In the lower 48 states it bear populations where thought to have been around 50,000 individuals but now that has been reduced to a total populations of 1,800 individuals split up into five different groups. Historically Grizzly's where found all over the Western United States, from the high plains to the Pacific Coast, but due to human interaction from the 1800s to the early 1900s 95% of the bear population was wiped out. In the USA bears eliminated from 98% of their historical range within a hundred years. Grizzly's where first removed from the plains areas and slowly removed from their mountain habitats as well.  Grizzly's are making a return in the United States but mostly in the Yellowstone region where populations have reached a stable number and have been removed from the status of threatened. 

Listing Date and Type of Listing:

The first Grizzly Bear was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1975. The National Parks Service plans on releasing the Final Environmental Impact Statement in 2018 for the Grizzly bear recovery plan.

Causes of Listing and Main Threats To continued Existence:

The main threat to Grizzly's was hunting. As European settlers came to the west coast they hunted grizzly bears to near extinction. Bears where viewed as threats to humans because they ate foods valued by humans. In the North Cascades region in Washington nearly 4,000 grizzly bear hides where shipped through trading posts in the region between 1827 to 1859. On top of being hunted persistently grizzly's have one of the lowest reproductive rates out of any mammal. Females don't reproduce until they are between the age of 4 to 7 and usually produce cubs every three years. For these reasons Grizzly bears were forced onto the endangered species list. 

             The main threat that bears face know are interactions with humans, small numbers, and lack of connections of habitat. Interactions with humans and lack of connection of habitat fit together because one causes the other. The grizzly's habitat has been fragmented due to human settlement. Bears need a very large area to live in, as mentioned above, but that habitat is scattered with human settlement which causes instant conflict. Roads pose one of the biggest threats in national parks. The number of animals killed by cars in parks has risen by 205% form 1991 to 2011. In the United States Grizzly populations have been split into five separate groups which creates the issue of genetic diversity.  

Description of Recovery Plan: 

The first Grizzly Bear recover plan was implemented in 1993 by the by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It was estimated to have a cost of 26 million dollars and take between 30 to 40 years to complete. The recovery plan had a sequence of five steps of action to meet its goal. First was to identify Grizzly population goals. Second to set up a population monitoring approach to allow determination of recovered levels. Third was to identify limiting factors to populations and habitat that account for current population levels. Fourth was to identify measures to eliminate the limiting factors and the final step was to establish recovered populations in each region and sustain them. There have been a total of 8 recovery plans that have been written for the Grizzly bear with the most recent one coming from 2017. 

What we can do?

As individuals there are many ways we can do to help out bear populations. One of the simplest ways would be to donate to organizations that either directly help grizzly bears or to wildlife foundations that help support the bears habitat. Another way that we can support bears and probably the most important way would be to get educated and stay up to date. When we are educated on a subject we can make better decisions. We must take action though, it was actions of humans that nearly pushed this species to extinction. The only way for Grizzly Bear populations to recover are for humans to come up with ways to reverse their effects. 

Other Resources:

Defenders of Wildlife(Adopt a Grizzly Bear)
https://defenders.org/grizzly-bear/how-you-can-help
Montana Grizzly Encounter: Save the Grizzlies
http://www.grizzlyencounter.org/save-the-grizzly-bear-inc

Citations for Research:

Natural Resources Conservation Service.” Threatened and Endangered Species Grizzly Bear Fact Sheet | NRCS Montana, 

Hughes, Trevor. “National Park Visitors Leave Roadkill in Their Wake.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 29 July 2013, 

“Grizzly Bears.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior

 “Grizzly Bear (Ursus Arctos Horribilis).” ECOS Environmental Conservation Online System, US Fish and Wildlife Service , ecos.fws.gov/ecp0/profile/speciesProfile?

“Grizzly Bear Outreach.” Western Wildlife Outreach, westernwildlife.org/grizzly-bear-outreach-project/history/.

Links to pictures in order of appearance:

https://phys.org/news/2017-09-fierce-debate-roars-life-grizzly.html

http://westernwildlife.org/grizzly-bear-outreach-project/history/

https://ninilchik.com/alaska-hunting/alaska-bear-hunting/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2604212/Motherly-love-Grizzly-bear-shields-triplet-cubs-wind-rain-lets-cuddle-warm-fur.html

http://www.wildnatureimages.com/Grizzly_Bear_Cubs.htm