Grizzly: King of the Mountain

The small bands of bear seekers had already started gathering around the pullouts overlooking the sweeping sagebrush flats that comprise Swan Lake Flat.  Everything was green and succulent, a grizzly paradise.  I arrived early on this splendid morning, giving myself time before my shift began in hopes of catching a glimpse at my first grizzly cubs of the year—affectionately known as coys.  After pulling into a private little one car pullout, I slid out of the car and glassed the rolling hummocks with my binoculars.        

While several of us were lucky enough to observe a mother grizzly and her two cubs that Yellowstone morning, the truth is we didn’t need to actually see the bears to experience them.  That is the beauty of being in the wildlands scattered throughout Montana.  Anywhere the grizzly still roams speaks of wildness.  Just by being in the presence of the great bear, we are inherently experiencing the grizzly.

Each year, millions of visitors flock to Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks and the wilderness areas that surround these legendary wildlands.  For many of these visitors, it is the opportunity to see a grizzly--or at least to walk in its presence--that causes them to travel from all over the world.   They want to experience Montana at its most authentic level.  And what could possibly be a more authentic Montana experience than shouldering a pack filled with a few days worth of food and heading out into grizzly country?

Predators in the wild have always captured our imagination.  They have earned a presence in our stories, writings, and even our governmental policies.  The grizzly is considered by many to be the closest wild creature to man.  The traits we share with the great bear are numerous.  They are omnivoures and, like humans, opportunistic eaters.  They have the ability to stand on their hind legs, and even walk in an upright position.  Their rear paw track looks much like a human footprint. They have binocular vision and dexterous forepaws.  The similarities go on, but perhaps the most notable similarity can be found in the grizzly's behavior.  Watching a mother grizzly discipline her cubs is much like watching a mother who has just finished an eleven hour shift trying to get her two young children through the grocery store.  The mother grizzly will bawl at her cubs, whoof at them, and even cuff them upside the head if she really needs their attention.  With the exception of primates, no animal is more dependent upon learning behavior from its mother than a bear cub--grizzly cubs in particular--which may help explain why there is arguably more anthropomorphism in relation to the grizzly than any other animal on this continent.  

Native American peoples, who coexisted with the bear long before Euro-Americans arrived on this continent, considered the grizzly a helper, teacher and even a brother.  While it would be misleading to depict a perfect and general harmony between all native tribes and the grizzly, it is safe to say that the grizzly has been universally respected, and often revered by Native Americans.  So great was this reverence in some tribes that a warrior who killed a bear, touched a bear in its winter sleep, ate a bear, or even dreamed of a bear, was thought to be invincible.  Some Indian people describe the bear as “half human," while others describe them as, “human without fire.” 

Amazingly, the same qualities that led many native tribes to revere the grizzly bear—its skill, cunning, and strength—nearly led to its extinction.  With western expansion in the 19^th century, ideology and philosophy regarding predators like the grizzly transformed almost as quickly as the landscape was devoured.  As a result, the grizzly bears of the 21^st century have been reduced to less than 2% of their historic range.  While there were once over 50,000 grizzlies in the lower 48 states, it is estimated that less than 1,500 grizzlies remain.  Today there are only two viable grizzly populations in the contiguous United States: the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE)—with approximately 600 grizzlies--which encompasses Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshal Wilderness Complex; and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE)—with anywhere from 350-610 grizzlies--which includes Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, and the surrounding six national forests.  With another 20-30 grizzlies in the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem in northwestern Montana—the most imperiled grizzly population in the United States--the gem state is home to more grizzly bears than any other state in the lower 48.  

There is a big difference between wilderness and wildness.  For many, that difference is the grizzly bear.

Yet the wild country that serves as home to grizzlies here under the Big Sky is growing smaller and more tattered each year because of rapid population growth, recreation and resource use.  While we can assume that core habitat for grizzlies will always be protected in the national parks and surrounding wilderness areas, it is the river bottoms and forest edges that grizzly advocates worry about.  As large as the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is, at roughly 18 million acres in size (bigger than the states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined), it is still a geographic island for its inhabitants.  There are just too many barriers that keep grizzlies in the GYE region from emigrating into the NCDE and vice versa, and the probability of intermingling between the two populations grows smaller with each new generation of grizzly bears.

Ironically, the future of the grizzly in Montana may rest in large part upon neighboring Idaho’s desire to one day reintroduce grizzlies to the Central Idaho Wilderness Complex.  With grizzlies in central Idaho, and an enthusiastic effort to protect both core habitat and corridors, we could one day connect these isolated grizzly populations, potentially resolving the concerns about genetic diversity that exist today.  This is the bold vision of the Yellowstone to Yukon Initiative, better known as Y2Y--to link protected areas such as the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area with other core habitat by protecting natural corridors, or by building artificial ones like those found in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada.

While the future of the grizzly remains uncertain--even here in Montana--for now this species, once thought to be on the brink, seems to be thriving.  This is a cause for celebration.  The grizzly is a symbol of Montana and everything we hold to be real and true.  The writer Terry Tempest Williams once said, “if you know wilderness in the way you know love, you would be unwilling to let it go.  This is the story of our past, and it will be the story of our future.”  

The grizzly bear is a part of us, and should we ever lose the great beast, we will forever be losing a part of ourselves, a part of our ancestors, our history, and story as a people.  The bears are where they are today, once again thriving in Montana, largely because of science, wildlife biologists and wildlife managers.  And while they will remain an integral aspect of grizzly preservation in the future, I think something far greater must occur to guarantee the grizzly's survival well into the future.

We will only fight to save what we love, and love is not something that comes easily or overnight for most people.  But the future of the grizzly may depend upon our ability to love.  Maybe not the bear itself, but to at least love what it represents, what it symbolizes and contributes to our own lives.  This will take time, but the thousands of visitors who flock to Montana each year, with the sole desire to experience grizzly country, give reason for optimism.