With tourists packing Yellowstone National Park, grizzlies there are gaining whole new levels of visibility and world-wide awareness.
Photos and videos of grizzlies flooding social media feeds doesn’t mean the bears are more active this year or that there are more of them, Chuck Neal of Cody, a retired wildlife expert, told Cowboy State Daily.
It means there are more cameras pointed at the bears than ever.
“A bear can’t hardly scratch his hind end without somebody getting a photo of it,” he said.
The Roads Are Packed
Neal likes to hike in Yellowstone Park and has been going to the park every spring and summer for decades. He said he can’t recall a June as busy as this one.
“The roads are packed. There are almost mid-summer levels of traffic in the park already,” he said.
And tourists love getting photos and video of grizzlies.
And all of that attention on bears is a two-edged sword, Neal said.
“It’s good that we are getting more documentation than ever of all kinds of bear activity,” he said. “The other side of that sword is that there is just such a heavy human presence in the park this time of year, and it just keeps getting heavier every year.”
Tourists have been behaving themselves around bears, he said.
“It’s a mixed bag. There’s always a few clowns. But by and large, most people are hanging close to the roads” to get bear photos, Neal said.
‘Chomp, Chomp, Chomp’
Bears have been out of their winter dens for a while now, and they are fully out of their post-hibernation lethargy so their appetites are really kicking into high gear, Neal said.
That means they’re out and about more, foraging for things to eat, making them more visible to gawking crowds.
Protein-rich big game carcasses from animals that died over the winter are still plentiful in Yellowstone and are on the grizzlies’ menu, he said.
But many might not realize how much the big bears depend upon fresh green grass and forbs, Neal said.
“They graze just like a cow, taking the grass right down to the ground, ‘chomp, chomp, chomp’ as they move across the landscape,” he said.
It’s bear business as usual in Yellowstone, Neal said. So far it’s been a good spring and early summer, for them but hardly one for the record books.
I can’t say that I’ve seen any unusual level of bear activity this year compared to the 45 previous springs I’ve spent in Yellowstone,” he said.
All Quiet On The Teton Front
While Yellowstone might appear busy with bears going bonkers, things look quiet in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming photographer Jorn Vangoidtsenhoven told Cowboy State Daily.
Even the biggest bear celebrity of all, Grizzly 399, has seemed a bit camera shy so far this year, he said.
Some popular Teton bears, generally known by the numbers that research biologist have assigned to them over the years, haven’t been as readily visible as Yellowstone grizzlies.
“I'd say Yellowstone is having a very good bear spring so far,” Vangoidtsenhoven said. “The Tetons, however, are quieter than usual. Grizzly 399 and her cub Spirit are not that frequently seen and besides them, there's only 1063 with three cubs. Other regular bears like 610 and Blondie are not around as they used to be,” he said.
“399 has been more cautious than usual since she came out with Spirit last spring, 1063 has her first cubs of the year ever, so she is cautious,” Vangoidtsenhoven said.
Grizzly 610 is 399s most famous grown offspring and has also been seldom seen this year, he said. That bear doesn’t hang around the roads unless she has cubs to protect, and her latest offspring are old enough to be on their own.
Blondie, another bear, has two new cubs since losing a trio in 2022. The loss has made her “cautious,” Vangoidtsenhoven said.
And likely camera shy.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
