Some thoughts on grizzly bear-livestock conflict

I clearly remember the first time I ever saw a grizzly bear; I was packing horses through the Teton Wilderness while working with a Forest Service trail crew. A subadult bear ran in front of our string and lumbered up the hill, and I was completely in awe, and a little scared. I had seen many black bears before this point, but no previous animal had ever made me feel simultaneously starstruck, humbled, and curious. The grizzly bear is majestic and mysterious, and a true symbol of wilderness. There is good reason why hundreds of people stop on the side of the road in Yellowstone or here in Tom Miner to catch a glimpse of a grizzly bear. I believe this moment in the backcountry is where my obsession with grizzly bears began.

Brief update

We are experiencing a heat wave here in the basin, much like the rest of the West. Cattle have moved up into the forest permit lands and other herds are working through their grazing rotations. Grizzly activity seems to be on the rise much earlier than last year and we have been seeing bears frequently when out checking cattle, or just meandering around. I have seen wolf tracks up in the mountains and others have spotted wolves and bears on a carcass in the area. Other wildlife appears to be “business as usual”, and we have begun to place camera traps in order to characterize what wildlife is frequenting the area. We recently had a group of Environmental Studies undergraduates from University of Michigan class that came to learn about ranching and coexisting with predators that helped us remove some invasive plants from a pasture. I have been riding all over the place, bouncing around from ranch to ranch trying to cover as much ground as possible. Overall, the busy season has begun, and my days are spent tending to horses, cattle, and the landscape.

*One of my primary range riding horses, Madiba. Owned by Louise Johns*

I am extremely grateful to know and experience the “good” side of grizzly bears. They are incredibly intelligent, charismatic, goofy, and playful creatures. I am grateful to have watched them for thousands of hours up close both in captivity, and in McNeil River, AK. Watching their behavior in proximity allows you to see that even though they are frequently thought of as solitary creatures, they are actually incredibly social. Captive bears establish a pecking order, choose playmates, and cuddle when sleeping. Coastal brown bears on salmon streams exist in crowded conditions with a complex social dynamic as they navigate sharing resources. While lower 48 grizzly bears tend to be more solitary than coastal brown bears, they still seem to exhibit social behaviors. We have watched 15+ bears foraging for caraway in the same night, in the same field without much conflict. The large amount of regional and individual variation makes grizzly bears extremely complex and adaptable creatures, so much so it is difficult to place them into one box .

Bear research has seen a shift towards understanding these individual differences more clearly and trying to better understand how different animals choose to interact with and utilize their environment. Ultimately, grizzly bears as a species are incredible generalists that become specialists on an individual level. Specifically, food usage is extremely variable among sexes, age classes, location, and the individual. We see patterns where larger male bears tend to consume higher protein diets with more meat to sustain overall larger body masses and energy expenditures, while smaller subadults and female bears can get by on a more plant dominant diet. This is especially relevant to ranching because every once in a while, there will be a bear that has learned to specialize in livestock.

Unfortunately, bears that have begun to take this route either need to be monitored, relocated (rarely successful), or removed from the population. Additionally, when there is nutritional stress placed on a population, this increases the likelihood for bears to seek out livestock as a food resource. For example, the decline of white bark pine seeds or cutthroat throat trout in the GYA means there needs to be a shift to another food resource to replace the macronutrient profile of that food. Cutthroat and white bark pine mast are high in lipids, and a quick and easy source of replacement fat for a starving grizzly bear is cattle. Lacking natural food resources that provide high-quality energy to create fat stores that sustain hibernation creates an unavoidable problem, no matter how much work is done on the producers end. Reducing bear-livestock conflict is a much larger job than just range riding and responsible cattle and range management, but a larger community-wide task of making sure there is intact wilderness with adequate biodiversity and food resources to sustain populations. Bears are resourceful creatures, and when pressed with limited resources combined with the heightened food drive of hyperphagia, they will turn to available resources, i.e. livestock.

Along with the “good”, there is also the reality about grizzly bears. If you have ever watched two males fighting during mating season or seen bears on a carcass, it provides you with a very raw perspective of how dangerous they can be. Many grizzly bears rely on a predominantly vegetation driven diet and will only opportunistically consume meat by either usurping carcasses from wolves, scavenging on winter-kills, or feeding on a carcass from another bears kill. However, hunting cattle is a learned behavior that can be self-taught through desperation, opportunity or a sow passing the behavior onto her cubs. It is especially important that grizzlies that have learned to kill cattle are dealt with quickly in order to prevent repeating the behavior. Grizzly bears suspected to be involved in depredation events should be assessed on an individual basis as these events are frequently isolated to individual bears. Upcoming advancements in genotyping DNA found on carcasses can help better identify bears responsible for cattle kills, and better manage problem bears. Understanding why grizzly bears may be attracted to cattle is fundamental in a larger community effort to reduce depredation and better manage landscapes, ranches, and bear populations to sit within equilibrium.

*Checking the Grizzly Creek cow/calf herd.*

-Ellery Vincent

2023 ’24 Range Rider