Food Scarcity In Yellowstone May Lead To More Bear Encounters

If you’re headed into or around Yellowstone National Park anytime soon, you may want to pack some bear spray if you plan on doing any hiking. Due to an expected scarcity of nuts from whitebark pine cones, grizzly bears are likely to be hanging out in lower elevation areas where hunters, berry pickers, and hikers frequent.

Beetles — which are increasingly surviving the warmer winters — are decimating the pines according to the New Zealand Herald. In some areas, as many as 70% of trees have been killed. And this year alone there have already been two deaths by bear mauling. One occurred in Gallatin National Forest near Cooke City, Montana — Kevin Kammer, 48 years old, was killed while sleeping in his tent.

The other, Erwin Frank Evert, aged 70, was killed last June just outside of Yellowstone National Park. In both cases, the bears were put down by local authorities. While the two instances had nothing to do with a diminished source of pine nuts, as bears don’t typically start feeding on the nuts stored by squirrels until mid-August, the two deaths are a stark reminder of the hazards of playing in bear country. There are an estimated 580 grizzlies in the area which attracts up to 3 million visitors per year.

Louisa Wilcox from the Natural Resources Defence Council sees an increasing trend:

Every year is now a bad year for whitebark pine. We can expect more conflicts and we are getting it.

Not only are humans at serious risk, but the bears themselves — who have recently been put back on a threatened species list — are also in danger. Although human deaths are very low, bears are typically captured or killed after human encounters. This year 22 bears have been put down or removed in and around Yellowstone. The worst year for bears on record is 2008, when 79 bears were killed– that same year was also a bad year for the whitebark pine as a food supply for the bears.

[Image: Alaskan Dude / Flickr]