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Grizzly Expert To Speak In Jackson On Yellowstone's Unique Bears

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Yellowstone’s grizzlies are unique in the world of bears. That’s according to a grizzly expert scheduled to speak in Jackson this week.

Yale wildlife biologist Dave Mattson spent 13 years in the field studying Yellowstone grizzlies. He says Yellowstone bears eat things like earthworms, pond weeds and pine seeds that no other grizzlies in the world do. And that’s not all.   

“Nowhere anymore do we have grizzlies that consume bison meat,” he says. “That was probably a wide spread behavior when we had both bison and grizzlies throughout the Great Plains. So that’s sort of a museum piece, if you will.”

Mattson says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife wants to de-list grizzlies as an endangered species. But he says we need more time for researchers to see how changing climate and dwindling food supplies will affect the bears. Mattson says the warming climate is hitting Yellowstone’s grizzlies especially hard.

“I don’t see a single positive trend,” Mattson says. “Historically, they got just about all their nutrients and energy from just four foods. Two of those foods have essentially disappeared: seeds of white bark pine and cutthroat trout.”

He says that’s why grizzlies are relying more on the third source—meat, leading to an increase in conflicts with ranchers and elk hunters. The fourth source, cutworm moths, is also dwindling due to warm temperatures.

Mattson says the feds should wait to de-list after seeing how these changes affect grizzlies long term.

He will speak at the Wildlife Art Museum on Wednesday, July 15 at 7 p.m. where they’ll also show a short film about the life a local grizzly. 

Melodie Edwards is the host and producer of WPM's award-winning podcast The Modern West. Her Ghost Town(ing) series looks at rural despair and resilience through the lens of her hometown of Walden, Colorado. She has been a radio reporter at WPM since 2013, covering topics from wildlife to Native American issues to agriculture.
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