northern Tanzania isn’t frivolous. Both parks grapple with similar issues: managing large, migrating wildlife herds, reducing the spread of disease, curbing invasive species, and coping with ranching and human development in their shrinking buffer zones.
If Greater Yellowstone has a totem species, it’s the great grizzly bear (known as the brown bear, bruin, or Kodiak bear in Alaska). Yellowstone constitutes the heart of its range, which is estimated to have expanded by as much as 40% since 1975, when the 136 remaining animals in the region were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The rise in grizzly numbers has been a major conservation success story. Current estimates of the park’s population hover around 150, with 717 bruins inhabiting the Greater Yellowstone region in 2016. The region in northwestern Montana around Glacier National Park (the Northern Continental Divide) harbors the only other major grizzly population in the Lower 48, with around 1,000 bears, though there are a handful of grizzlies in Montana’s Cabinet-Yaak region and Washington’s Cascade Mountains. That said, grizzlies currently occupy less than 4% of their original range, and numbers are down from a historical population of 50,000.
Since 2007, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been trying to delist the grizzly (remove it from the list of endangered species), claiming that the Yellowstone region has reached its capacity. The delisting process has been wrapped up in legal proceedings for the last decade, but the grizzly is expected to be delisted in 2017 and management passed to individual states, with the likelihood that grizzlies will then be hunted for sport in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho (but not within Yellowstone or Grand Teton National Parks). Critics of delisting say that the long-term genetic health of the grizzly has not yet been secured because bear populations survive only in isolated pockets, separated from each other.
Bison graze in Fountain Flats in the Midway Geyser Basin.
Besides poaching near park boundaries, current threats to grizzlies include a decline in cutthroat trout caused by the so-called whirling disease and illegally introduced lake trout, as well as the blister rust fungus and spread of bark beetles that have been decimating the supply of whitebark pine nuts, a prime source of late-season sustenance for grizzlies. Researchers have found that wolf reintroduction has actually increased the bears’ food supply: since 2000, all wolf-killed ungulate (hooved mammal) carcasses in the Pelican Valley have ultimately been taken over by grizzlies.
Each year, most of the bear sightings typically reported in Yellowstone are in the vicinity of Tower–Roosevelt Junction. Other areas with frequent sightings include Bridge Bay, and from Fishing Bridge to Yellowstone’s East Entrance. Less frequent sightings occur around dawn and dusk near Mammoth, on the north slopes of Mount Washburn, and in the Hayden and Lamar Valleys. In recent years, grizzly sightings have become more common than black bear sightings.
Yellowstone’s abundant, omnivorous black bear, with an estimated population of 500–650, exists primarily in niches not filled by territorial grizzlies. Sightings (and resulting roadside “bear jams”) are common around Tower and Mammoth. Despite their name, their coloration actually ranges from black to cinnamon. Both black bears and grizzlies start denning around mid-November, emerging from hibernation starting in April.
Black bear cubs never stray far from their mothers.
Bear Safety Guidelines
Restrictions in Yellowstone’s 16 Bear Management Areas include seasonal closures, recommendations on minimum party size, and off-trail travel and camping prohibitions. Several trails in this book pass through these areas. No matter where you hike, it’s always wise to take the following precautions:
• Ask at a ranger station or visitor center about recent bear activity before heading out.
• Do not travel alone or at night, when most bear feeding occurs. Parties of three or more are ideal.
• Stay alert for bear signs. Make noise and stay on marked trails; half of all attacks occur off-trail.
• Avoid carcasses, and do not carry smelly food.
• Never leave your pack unattended on the trail.
• Follow NPS guidelines for proper camping and food-storage techniques, as outlined in free hiking and backcountry camping brochures available at ranger stations and backcountry offices.
• Always carry bear spray, have it accessible at all times, and know how to use it. Reliable brands are Counter Assault and UDAP. You can’t fly with bear spray, so buy it at outdoors stores in gateway towns or at visitor center bookstores. You can also rent bear spray by the day or week at a booth outside Canyon Visitor Center.
• Report any incidents to park rangers.
Even if you follow all of these guidelines, it’s still quite possible that you will encounter a bear, especially if visiting the backcountry. If you see a bear before it sees you, keep out of sight and backtrack the way you came, or detour downwind as far as possible. There are various schools of thought about what to do in case of an encounter. Here’s an executive summary of what the NPS recommends:
• Stay calm. Do not run or make sudden movements—you cannot outrun a bear!
• Back away slowly. Do not drop your pack.
• Talk quietly to the bear, do not shout. Avoid looking directly at the bear.
• Only climb a tree if it’s nearby and you can climb at least 15–20 feet.
If you are charged, the NPS recommends standing still (easier said than done!) since most charges are bluff charges. If the bear makes physical contact, drop to the ground, face down with your hands behind your neck. In the case of a nighttime attack on a tent (these are extremely rare), you should fight back aggressively and use pepper spray.
Coyote populations have halved since wolves were reintroduced in 1995.
In both Yellowstone and Grand Teton, black bears have become quite pesky in seeking food from garbage cans, dumpsters, and campgrounds. However, the majority of bears you might see in the backcountry remain timid and are wary of humans. See the Bear Safety Guidelines for advice on avoiding or managing encounters with bears and other wildlife.
In 1995, 31 Canadian gray wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone, marking the beginning of an unprecedented effort to restore them to their historical range in the Northern Rockies. Wolves now live throughout Yellowstone and increasingly around the fringes of Grand Teton. In the initial phase of the reintroduction, wolf numbers grew rapidly to around 170, but numbers have since leveled off to around 100 inside Yellowstone, in 10 shifting packs. It is estimated that there are 500 of the primo predators in 50 packs in Greater Yellowstone, with 1,700 individuals in 282 packs (including 95 breeding pairs) in the whole of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.
Since 2008, battles have raged in the courts over plans to remove the gray wolf’s endangered-species status. Since 2011, control of wolf numbers has shifted to state authorities in Montana and Idaho, where several hundred wolves a year are now killed by hunters. Wolves once again enjoy federal
