I spent almost three years on the Governor's Grizzly Bear Roundtable, where five citizens from MT/ID/WY were asked to work with the USFWS to help them craft the Federal Conservation Strategy for management of Grizzly Bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, following eventual delisting. As a result, pieces about GBears always catch my interest.
One topic that came up was the number of hunter-Gbear conflicts on lands around YNP. Many opinions were given as to why that happens. The critics of delisting use these encounters, and the resulting bear mortalities, as a way to hammer hunting as a contributing cause to mortality of Gbears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
One of the renowned Grizzly Bear biologists and I were having lunch one day during those years of meetings and I mentioned the infestation of Gbears in my archery hunting areas. He looked at my as if I had missing the simplest clue to the easiest question ever asked.
He explained that problem bears, both those from inside YNP and often bears outside of YNP, get relocated to my hunting locations. I asked for more explanation.
He went into more detail. The density of grizzly bears north of YNP, the Upper Gallatin/Madison area, is very high. Possibly it is artificially high, due to relocation of problem bears from other locations. This article below shows a perfect example.
Not only are bears being relocated there, often they are the bears that have had problems in the past. If you hunt in Taylor's Fork, Teepee, Sage Creek, Cabin Creek, Buffalo Horn, and a few other places, know that you are in one of the highest density Gbear areas in the entire ecosystem. And many of the bears you are dealing with have a "rap sheet" that is not reflective of good behavior around humans.
The biologist did not have any data that stated specifically how this relocation program impacts bear mortalities and human-bear conficts. He is too professional to make any assertions without complete science for his claims.
But, when I surmized the obvious conclusion; that these continued relocation of problem bears could be contributing to the high human-bear conflicts in those drainages, especially when hunters are afiled during the most active bear periods of the year, he gave the smirk of "You know, for being the Charlie Daniels of the abacus, you are catching on to some of this cause-effect stuff."
Here is an article that talks about relocation of another problem bear to the area. Next time some person strongly against delisting of Gbears due to human caused mortality and wants to blame hunters for a bear-human conflict in those areas, I think I might interject some of this to the discussion.
News link here ---
http://fwp.mt.gov/news/newsReleases/fishAndWildlife/nr_0672.html
One topic that came up was the number of hunter-Gbear conflicts on lands around YNP. Many opinions were given as to why that happens. The critics of delisting use these encounters, and the resulting bear mortalities, as a way to hammer hunting as a contributing cause to mortality of Gbears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
One of the renowned Grizzly Bear biologists and I were having lunch one day during those years of meetings and I mentioned the infestation of Gbears in my archery hunting areas. He looked at my as if I had missing the simplest clue to the easiest question ever asked.
He explained that problem bears, both those from inside YNP and often bears outside of YNP, get relocated to my hunting locations. I asked for more explanation.
He went into more detail. The density of grizzly bears north of YNP, the Upper Gallatin/Madison area, is very high. Possibly it is artificially high, due to relocation of problem bears from other locations. This article below shows a perfect example.
Not only are bears being relocated there, often they are the bears that have had problems in the past. If you hunt in Taylor's Fork, Teepee, Sage Creek, Cabin Creek, Buffalo Horn, and a few other places, know that you are in one of the highest density Gbear areas in the entire ecosystem. And many of the bears you are dealing with have a "rap sheet" that is not reflective of good behavior around humans.
The biologist did not have any data that stated specifically how this relocation program impacts bear mortalities and human-bear conficts. He is too professional to make any assertions without complete science for his claims.
But, when I surmized the obvious conclusion; that these continued relocation of problem bears could be contributing to the high human-bear conflicts in those drainages, especially when hunters are afiled during the most active bear periods of the year, he gave the smirk of "You know, for being the Charlie Daniels of the abacus, you are catching on to some of this cause-effect stuff."
Here is an article that talks about relocation of another problem bear to the area. Next time some person strongly against delisting of Gbears due to human caused mortality and wants to blame hunters for a bear-human conflict in those areas, I think I might interject some of this to the discussion.
News link here ---
http://fwp.mt.gov/news/newsReleases/fishAndWildlife/nr_0672.html
