Grizzly Bear Conservation Strategy

Grizzly Bears: 
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, North America’s largest omnivore; the Grizzly bear; eats both plants and other animals. About 80 to 90 percent of the grizzly’s food is green vegetation, wild fruits and berries, nuts, and bulbs or roots of certain plants. Grizzlies also eat a great deal of insects, sometimes tearing rotten logs apart and turning over heavy stones in search of the adult insects or their larvae. 

 Photo by National Park Service, public domain.

Most of the meat in the grizzly’s diet comes from animal carcasses, or carrion, of big game animals, although it will sometimes prey on elk or moose calves or smaller mammals. Their diet also consists of salmon caught on annual migrations back to breeding grounds. The grizzly bear must eat enough to store huge amounts of fat needed to sustain it through its long winter sleep.




Although the Yellowstone-Yukon region can support approximately 17,000 - 20,000 bears, Grizzly bear populations are scattered and densities are low.Grizzly bears require very large areas of habitat , roughly 50 to 300 square miles for females and 200 to 500 square miles for males (US Fish and Wildlife Service).

Bear densities in the Yellowstone-Yukon region.

What can be done? :

• Construction of Wildlife Crossing Structures:
• Creating paths above or under roads for wildlife to pass.  Fencing along highways also aid in the use of these crossings by funneling effect. Although there has been early success with the use of these crossings, wary animals such as grizzly bears and wolves have a "learning curve" that may take up to 5 years before they are used consistently. (Y2Y)

• Limit the density of roads and other routes across recovery areas to decrease the number of bear and motorized vehicle encounters.
• Maintain demographic connectivity between small populations with forest conservation efforts.

Goals:

• 17,000 - 20,000 grizzly bears throughout Yellowstone to Yukon region.
• 50 - 70 % of Yellowstone to Yukon region managed for grizzly bears.
• 1 million new acres to expand core areas.
• All major transportation routes are permeable to wildlife.
• 75% of people living within Yellowstone to Yukon region are knowledgeable about grizzly bears.
• More than 50% of communities near grizzly-bear habitats have bear-resistant containers.
• Significant reduction in the number of proposals for large recreational and industrial developments in grizzly-bear habitat.