Bigjay73
Well-known member
Read am article about how moths, yes, moths make up a significant portion of grizzlies diet, I believe it was Wyoming grizzlies. Article stated they would eat upwards of 40,000 a day to gain fat fornrhe winter. Makes sense that given the choice between chasing 40,000 moths, or a single human wrapped in a north face tortilla, a bear would take the easy calories.Limiting encounters between bears and people is a noble goal and worthy of thought and investment. That said, maybe it's worthwhile to just recognize that when we have healthy populations of grizzlies and people living around each other, people and bears are going to get killed from time to time. It's sad, but is it necessarily a problem that needs to be "solved?" Seems more like a fact of life in certain areas.
I tend to think that the differences between Alaska and say, Montana, have more to do with the bears, their lifestyle and the landscape, than they do with hunting. My wife worked in the backcountry of Denali Nat. Park for a while, where I don't believe the bears experienced much hunting pressure, and her level of concern about the bear danger seemed markedly less than a lot of the people who recreate in the northern Rockies. In fact, I seem to recall some paper that I read in college (in Montana) about correlations between bear's diets and their likelihood of attacking humans...
Edit, found article:
‘Like butter for bears’: the grizzlies who dine on 40,000 moths a day
The tiny army cutworm moth provides a surprisingly nutritious meal for the giant carnivores – but humans are getting in the way
www.theguardian.com