Researchers reveal changes in grizzly bear behavior that lead grizzly bears closer to human habitat, increasing the potential for dangerous interactions.
What happened?
According to the 2021 documentary “Beasts of Our Time,” grizzly bears are expanding their territories into new areas due to warming global temperatures, allowing white pine beetles to thrive.
Unfortunately, this tiny insect has had a huge impact, causing the decimation of whitebark pine cone seeds, a major food source for grizzly bears. This causes grizzly bears to travel great distances in search of food and forces them to seek alternative sources of nutrition.
As A Green Planet points out, grizzly bears aren’t just changing their range as a result. Their hibernation patterns also changed.
Why is this important?
Bear-human interactions have been increasing—often with devastating consequences for humans and grizzly bears.
In 2019, a mother and her baby were killed in Canada by a malnourished grizzly bear that was searching for food before hibernating, CBS News reported. A few years later, the Washington Post reported that another grizzly bear that had killed a hiker was euthanized after breaking into someone’s home in search of food.
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Grizzly bears are protected as a threatened species and are an important part of keeping ecosystems balanced and healthy. They are joining the ranks of other animals whose changing behavioral patterns are causing alarm.
David Mattson, who has studied grizzly bears for 35 years, said in the documentary: “Grizzly bears are being hunted probably two to three times the rate they were 20 years ago, which begs the question: Why?”
“This goes back to climate change…which is having a catastrophic impact on grizzly bears and more specifically on bears’ relationships with humans. Some of the things we’re seeing are dramatic increases in bear mortality due to livestock conflicts and encounters with hunters,” he added.
What is being done to help?
Save the Yellowstone Grizzly Bears is one of the organizations working to protect grizzly bears. It focuses on planning and conservation strategies, education about sharing land responsibly with living things, perspectives from Aboriginal voices, and more.
Donating to climate causes, taking action at the local level, and voting for environmental candidates are some ways to get involved in these issues.
Meanwhile, dirty energy is by far the largest contributor to excess heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere. Choosing less polluting modes of transportation such as electric cars, trains or bicycles can help reduce planet-warming pollution that causes changes in animal behavior.
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