YukonGold
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2022
- Messages
- 225
This has to be part of it. The bears that came to the Florence area last year immediately started sniffing around garbage cans and had to be preventatively relocated.Another potential reason is primary food source declining. For example, declining whitebark pine in some areas.
Another example, due to the drought and low berry production last year there was a sow and 2 cubs in December
still roaming the CSKT Bison Range near Charlo and they was videoed on shown on the local news.
I found large bear tracks in the snow hunting pheasants in 2 drainages 20-miles apart in late December last year.
I think it's a combination of more bears + more people + less available habitat per bear + drought, blister rust, and whatever else is affecting their natural food supply. Obviously bears are nowhere near their historic population and never will be, so it's going to depend on bears and humans learning how to be neighbors, because we want to live and recreate in the same places and eat the same things. Montanans clearly haven't figured out how to do that yet. Seems maybe Alaskans have?