Bears Are Bigger Killers Than [some] Thought

[bigmacc]

Lump these issues in with the wolf  and you see why you don't see nearly the elk, moose and deer you used to see. I,ve been there5 times going back to 1977 and the amount of elk, moose and deer we seen then compared to what we seen 3 years ago would shock you. As far as bears and wolves, exactly the opposite, until 3 years ago we had seen 4 bear in the park on the previous trips(total), 3 years ago we seen 6 black bears(7 cubs), 5 grizzly (4cubs), and a pack of wolves(12 that we counted). We never did see a deer, not one, we seen around 50 or so elk, no moose but a lot of buffalo. Our first trip back in 77 and onto the 80,s we seen some of the biggest mule deer I,ve ever seen, probably 20 or so moose and more elk than I could even count. Makes you wonder, why the push and protection of all these predators...

[bigmacc]

I watched a few documentaries on Yellowstone and bears and that's what they discussed/showed, bears targeting calves, but they called it minimal impact and a minimal diet that didn't affect the herds.

I saw a really interesting documentary on the fall of the yellowstone herd where some long time Yellowstone biologists were putting forth a theory that wolves weren't so much to blame for the elk decline as many people think. 

They traced back a few decades when yellowstone Lake had an amazingly robust Brook trout population and the bears would gorge on spawning brook trout. 

Them$ someone illegally dumped lake trout in there. 

Fast forward to now and streans that used to overflow with Brook trout are now empty. The lake Trout flat wiped them out.   And Lake trout spawn in the lake. 

These guys had been in Yellowstone a loing time and pointed to places that griz would always come to gorge on trout.   But there are none. 

They said that Griizz have a finite home range and $any switched to elk calves.   So even the same number of griz now kill a ton more elk. 

Io don't know, but they made a compelling argument.

Yes Dan-o, thats right. When we were there in the spring we did some fishing  at Yellowstone lake they had no limit on lake trout, the person at the lodge basically said what you had heard, someone had dumped lake trout in the system, they are hardy eaters(even canibilistic if I remember right ) and took a huge toll on native species. They said the bears(needing protein) started to go after other sources like fawns, calves etc. more than they have in the past. They told us predation on park animals by bears was up because of the fish problem, this was 3 years ago  

Nope, wolves......you guys are getting off topic here and presenting a theory though logical, not the issue here. Put the kool aid down and step away from the Hillary posters.

 

[Dan-o]

 


Oooops. Wrong thred.   

 

[PlateauNDN]

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  ha!! Beat you jackelope.