# What kills Grizzly Bears?



## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

I just read and op/ed piece in the Great Falls Tribune about wolves and bears. 
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/articl ... od|mostcom
The gist of the piece was that humans are the least of the worries for bears. Aside from the opinions expressed in the article, it pointed me to a website that has tracked grizzly bear mortality in the Greater Yellowstone System since 2009. 
http://www.nrmsc.usgs.gov/science/igbst/mort

Anyway - I thought the data was very interesting. So far in 2012, 16 grizzlies have died. From what? Humans? Human interference? The results are interesting. Here are some highlights:
-Seven of the 16 bear fatalities in 2012 were caused by bear-on-bear violence. Including two sows killed by other bears, each sow with two cubs, either confirmed killed or probably killed. 
-Three others were put down by bear managers for killing cattle or sheep or raiding human habitat. 
- One was hit by a car. 
-Two other cases are under investigation, possibly illegally killed. 
-An orphaned cub died in captivity.
-One bear died of old age.
- And wolves killed one cub.

Interesting stuff. In the two previous years, nearly all grizzly deaths have been human caused.


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## jpolson (Jun 12, 2011)

That is interesting.

I think Nosler Partitions are also good medicine.


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## svmoose (Feb 28, 2008)

Grizzly Bears are TOP of the food chain (besides humans) - most bears get killed by humans or related causes, or by other bears. Dominant boars will often kill cubs that are in their territory - sometimes the mother, but usually after they kill off the cubs, the sow will come into heat again. I bet a lot of Grizzly mortality happens to very young cubs, but I would assume the Park folks monitor a few sows over winter and watch them come out of their dens. 

There's rumor that Grizzly's may get delisted in the upcoming years. Will boar harvest actually result in a faster growing population?


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Grizzly Bears are having a tough time in Wyoming outside the Yellowstone National Park. Their main food source before denning up, Whitebark Pine nuts, is getting tough to come by. Disease and climate changes are drastically reducing the tree in Wyoming, especially in the Wind River Mountain Range.

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/awetz ... o_gri.html


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