The Yellowstone grizzly bear was removed from the Endangered Species List in 2007. Their population continues to grow, increasing by 4 to 7 percent a year. Their range is still expanding both north and south of Yellowstone National Park.

But conflicts remain. In 2008, grizzly deaths in the Yellowstone ecosystem were reported to be high. Seventy-nine bears were killed. Another year of such high mortality could trigger a review of the grizzly’s listing status.

Two of the grizzly’s key food sources, cutthroat trout and white bark pine seeds, are increasingly uncertain. Trout runs have been eliminated on many streams, and white bark pine trees are suffering from blister rust and beetle damage across much of their range. But this year, the remaining trees are producing a strong seed crop and the bears are harvesting good calories from seeds and moths in preparation for winter.

The agencies and concerned conservation groups are monitoring the bears closely. For more information, please click on the links below:

• The Missoulian: “Opinion: Yellowstone grizzly recovery is conservation success story” – August 20, 2009
• The Missoulian: “Opinion: Yellowstone grizzlies need protection” – August 7, 2009
• Jackson Hole Daily: “Expert: Help relist grizzlies” – May 22, 2009
• Reuters: “Forests fall to pine beetle outbreak” – August 4, 2009

Wildlife filmmaker Shane Moore has been documenting the natural world for nearly three decades, producing distinctive and detailed studies of complex ecological problems around the world. In NATURE’s The Good, the Bad, and the Grizzly, Moore turns his lens on the mighty grizzly bears that inhabit Yellowstone National Park and surrounding lands. Once threatened with extinction, Yellowstone’s grizzlies have now rebounded — a success that has brought its own set of problems, from conflicts with people to the need for adequate room to roam. Moore recently discussed these and other grizzly bear issues from his home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming:

You’ve filmed grizzly bears a great deal in the past. Did anything surprise you while making this film?

I was surprised by the level of conflict with grizzlies that people in the area are dealing with on a regular basis. I knew there were problems, but I didn’t think they were so widespread. But the bears are everywhere now. [Government biologists] recently had to capture six bears involved in conflict situations in a single day — that’s some kind of a record, and the problem seems to be growing.

What happens to these “problem” bears?

Well, female bears are very valued, so they get “three strikes.” The biologists will try to move them out of conflict situations three times. But males typically get two strikes, and just one if they are doing something considered very dangerous to humans. If it is a serious problem, those bears will be euthanized.

How have these conflicts influenced local views on the proposal to delist the grizzly as endangered?

A lot of locals are looking at this trend and saying: “These bears are endangered? Give me a break.” But if you look at the issue from the other side and consider the potential problems with the future food supply for the bears, the picture looks pretty grim. So there are strong views on both sides.

What would you do?

I want to see bears do well, but I’m not certain about how to do that. If you don’t delist them, the local frustration level is going to reach the breaking point. There is going to be a lot of “shooting, shoveling, and shutting up” going on [illegally killing bears and burying them]. So it’s a really tough call. I don’t think delisting would be the end of the world, since the states will continue to work together, and they have put a lot of thought into protection plans. But there could be problems [such as] greater development, logging, and limited hunting. That is hot button issue for a lot of people.

Outside of the policy issues, what captured your attention in making this film?

Well, the moth story still blows me away. I hadn’t seen any footage of [the bears foraging on mountain peaks for the army cutworm moths]. I’m still astounded at how the bears aggregate on these mountain peaks, sometimes coming from about a thousand miles away to feed on these insects.

How did you find those places?

It wasn’t easy. These sites are top secret, nobody divulges them for good reason — you don’t want lots of people there disrupting the bears. So we had to do a lot of our own exploration. We’d climb up with heavy backpacks loaded with all of our equipment, and start looking. Soon, we figured out what makes a moth site work. But it was hard to get the search image right; you are looking for a bear on these big, virtually lifeless rocky slopes. They hole up during the day, and then start coming out in the evening. And when they do… Whew! We saw 15 bears on a single peak. It was hard to capture that on film.

Could you get close?

About a quarter of a mile away. And we’d always stay downwind. But I think it’s worth backing off and being happy with yourself for not causing a big disturbance for the bears. It feels like a sanctuary up there.

Any other surprises besides the moths?

The elk hunting story continues to fascinate me — that the carcasses hunters leave behind can be such a key source of food was really interesting.

Anything you weren’t able to capture the way you wanted to?

Well, I wanted to film the bears eating the four key foods, and we did pretty well. But I wanted to do a little better with the white bark pine seed story. It is so challenging to work in those thick forests; they are very difficult places to work. In the backcountry the biggest challenge is not to frighten the bears.

After a decades-long comeback, the grizzly bears of Yellowstone National Park appear to be thriving. Should they now be removed from the protection of the Endangered Species Act? This question has provoked one of the most emotionally charged wildlife controversies in America today.

In the mid-20th century, Yellowstone’s grizzlies had been reduced to a relatively small number of bears that had stopped hunting and were living on trash intentionally left by the park’s attendants. In 1972, park officials reversed their policy, and the garbage dumps were closed.

Today, after 30 years of protection under the Endangered Species Act, grizzlies have learned to hunt once again, and have made a resounding return, with an estimated 600 thriving in the 17,000 square miles that comprise the Greater Yellowstone area.

With the rising bear population, however, comes conflict, as the grizzlies interact more and more with encroaching humanity — roaming in residential areas, raiding dumpsters, attacking livestock, and unknowingly inspiring tourists to take chances on roads and trails so they can glimpse the great bear.

In short, the success of grizzly restoration has spawned a complex web of social and environmental issues that many disagree upon. While some lawmakers argue that grizzlies should be delisted as an endangered species, others believe this would be a premature maneuver.

Discover the complex issue of grizzly bear management and conservation from ranchers, conservationists, and government officials who share their stories and insights on The Good, the Bad, and the Grizzly.

To order a copy of The Good, the Bad, and the Grizzly, visit the NATURE Shop.

Online content for The Good, the Bad, and the Grizzly was originally posted November, 2004.

Can the King of Beasts be copied? That is the question some conservationists are pondering as lion populations dwindle worldwide. They say cloning — using advanced biological techniques to create genetic duplicates of existing lions — could become part of the effort to save the big cats. Other experts, however, are skeptical. Cloning lions would be difficult and expensive, they argue, adding that it won’t really solve the major problems facing the big cats, such as habitat loss. For the moment, they say, the money would be better spent on more traditional conservation efforts.

It’s a debate that couldn’t have even occurred a decade ago. Cloning a mammal was beyond the reach of science until 1996, when researchers managed to create a cloned sheep named Dolly. Since then, scientists have learned how to clone a host of other mammals, including mice, sheep, cows, dogs, and small cats. In 2002, scientists in Texas announced that they had cloned a domestic cat. They named the genetic replicate kitten “CC,” for “carbon copy.”

The breakthrough got some cat conservationists thinking. Cloning, they realized, could be a way to preserve the gene pool of dwindling cat populations, and perhaps create robust animals that could eventually be returned to the wild. In theory, genes could even be taken from the frozen tissues of dead animals, then reintroduced into populations through cloning. In essence, the dead could “walk again.”

In 2003, one conservation center began to follow through on these ideas. In New Orleans, the Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species succeeded in cloning the first African wildcat, the bigger, wilder cousin of the common domestic cat. Eventually the team produced seven clones. Then, in 2005, the researchers went a step further. Two of the clones were allowed to mate, producing eight kittens. The births confirmed the idea that maybe, someday, cloned animals might be used to repopulate endangered species.

“We couldn’t be happier with these births,” Audubon researcher Betsy Dresser said at the time. “By improving the cloning process and then encouraging cloned animals to breed and make babies, we can revive the genes of individuals who might not be reproductively viable otherwise, and we can save genes from animals in the wild.”

Ultimately, she said, similar techniques might be used to reinvigorate populations of endangered small cats, such as Asia’s fishing cats and India’s rusty spotted cat, the world’s smallest feline. “The goal is to use whatever tools we can to help boost these populations,” explained Dresser. She cautioned, however, that while cloning could help conservation, “no single approach is going to solve the incredibly complex problem of disappearing wildlife.”

That complexity has helped spark controversy in India, where in 2004 scientists announced ambitious plans to clone the highly endangered Asian lion. Fewer than 300 are believed to exist, and the small group of Indian researchers said they wanted to spend $1 million to clone and restore the big cats.

The announcement drew criticism from conservation groups, who said the project raised false hopes. One problem, they noted, is that even if scientists succeeded in cloning the lions, their natural habitat is rapidly being lost to farms and development. “We spend millions of rupees trying to clone…lions, but where will we put them?” Belinda Wright of the Wildlife Protection Society of India asked reporters.

In addition, experts predict that cloning a lion won’t be easy. The vast majority of cloning experiments end in failure, they say, noting that it took more than 300 tries to create Dolly the sheep. Adding to the challenge is the fact that every mammal species has its own biological quirks when it comes to reproduction. Cloning a dog proved far more difficult than cloning a cat, for instance, because of some details of its reproductive biology.

In India, lion cloning advocates predict those technical problems will be overcome. So far, however, no scientist has succeeded in cloning one of the big cats. For the moment, weighing the potential risks and benefits of making copies of the King of Beasts remains a mostly hypothetical debate.

Subscribe to the NATURE Podcast with iTunes.

This episode premiered Sunday, April 19, 2009.

GRADE LEVEL: 5-8

TIME ALLOTMENT: Two 45-minute class periods

OVERVIEW:

The loneliest animals are the last of their kind on the planet. Scientists warn that up to 100 species a day are being pushed toward extinction. Sadly, many of these creatures are endangered because of human actions. Nature: The Loneliest Animals profiles a variety of captive breeding programs, designed to bolster these dwindling animal populations.

Using segments from this program and other Web resources, students will discuss different ways that animal species become extinct, and analyze how human actions can positively and negatively influence a species’ population. Students will also discuss the benefits and challenges of helping an endangered species through captive breeding, and will prepare “news segments” for the class to present research on endangered species.

OBJECTIVES

Students will be able to:

• Compare and discuss different causes of extinction;
• Name several currently highly endangered species, and describe how people are trying to bring them back from the brink of extinction;
• Research an endangered species, and present information from online, print, and broadcast resources in an oral report.

MEDIA RESOURCES:

Video:

NATURE, The Loneliest Animals, selected segments

Clip 1: Yangtze giant soft shell turtle

Clip 2: Sumatran rhinoceros

Clip 3: Lemurs

Clip 4: Black-Footed Ferret

Clip 5: Imperiled Lives

Access the streaming and downloadable video segments for this lesson at the Video Segments Page.

Web sites

Yangtze Giant Soft-shell Turtle (China)

Asian Turtle Conservation Network: Rafetus Swinhoei

Fact page on the endangered soft-shell turtle

China’s Turtles: Emblems of a Crisis (New York Times)

Article about the Chinese breeding effort for Rafetus Swinhoei

Sumatran Rhinoceros (Sumatra, Indonesia)

International Rhino Foundation:

Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary

[NOTE: page features graphic photo of two rhinos mating.]

Information about Sumatran Rhinos from the Indonesian sanctuary

Sumatran Rhino

General information about the endangered Sumatran Rhino

News from the Field – International Rhino Foundation Blog

Latest news in Rhino research

Lemurs (Madagascar); including Golden-Crowned Sifaka

Duke University Lemur Center

Information on the many species of lemur at the Duke University Center, including the endangered Golden-Crowned Sifaka

Black-Footed Ferret (United States)

Prairie Wildlife Research

Black-footed ferret conservation information

STANDARDS:

National Science Education Standards

http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=4962

LIFE SCIENCE: Content Standard C

As a result of their activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop understanding of

• Diversity and adaptations of organisms
  • Biological evolution accounts for the diversity of species developed through gradual processes over many generations. Species acquire many of their unique characteristics through biological adaptation, which involves the selection of naturally occurring variations in populations. Biological adaptations include changes in structures, behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproductive success in a particular environment.

o        Extinction of a species occurs when the environment changes and the adaptive characteristics of a species are insufficient to allow its survival. Fossils indicate that many organisms that lived long ago are extinct. Extinction of species is common; most of the species that have lived on the earth no longer exist.

SCIENCE IN PERSONAL AND SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES: Content Standard F

As a result of activities in grades 5-8, all students should develop understanding of

• Populations, Resources, and Environments
  • When an area becomes overpopulated, the environment will become degraded due to the increased use of resources.
  • Causes of environmental degradation and resource depletion vary from region to region and from country to country.

MATERIALS:

For the class:

• One computer with Internet access and audiovisual projection system, for screening video segments
• “Last of their Kind” Answer Key (PDF) (RTF)
• [Optional - toothpicks, stopwatch, and flour, for the Extinction Simulation extension activity - see the "Loneliest Animals Extinction Simulation" (PDF)

For each group of 2-3 students:

• Computer with Internet access

For each student:

• “Causes of Extinction” Student Organizer (PDF)(RTF)
• “Last of their Kind?” Student Organizer (PDF) (RTF)
• “Explore a Species” Student Organizer (PDF) (RTF)

PREP FOR TEACHERS

Preview all of the video segments and Web sites used in the lesson.

Download the video clips used in the lesson to your classroom computer, or prepare to watch them using your classroom’s Internet connection.

Bookmark the Web sites used in the lesson on each computer in your classroom. Using a social bookmarking tool such as del.icio.us or diigo (or an online bookmarking utility such as portaportal) will allow you to organize all the links in a central location.

Make copies of student organizers listed in the “Materials” section.

Proceed to ACTIVITIES

Excerpts from the NATURE episode, “The Loneliest Animals”

Downloadable QuickTime versions of the video segments:
(Note: To download a video, right click on the video title and click “Save Link As…’ or “Save Target As…”. On a Mac, press the CTRL key and simultaneously click the mouse, then save the link.)

Clip 1: Yangtze Giant Soft-Shell Turtle

Clip 2: Sumatran Rhinoceros

Clip 3: Lemurs

Clip 4: Black-Footed Ferret

Clip 5: Imperiled Lives

GRADE LEVEL: Grades 9-12

TIME ALLOTMENT: Three 45-minute class periods

OVERVIEW: In the nineteenth-century Western frontier, the wolf was considered a menace – perpetually hunting farm animals and threatening frontier livelihoods. It was not unusual for bounty hunters to be hired to rid communities of this scourge. But one such bounty hunter, Ernest Thompson Seton, was influential in changing popular perspective on wild animals. Seton was hired to kill wolves – but one particular wolf, named Lobo, challenged Seton’s hunting abilities and piqued his more naturalistic interests. As his chase of Lobo stretched on, Seton came to believe that future generations of animals like the wolf should be protected. His focus became less on destruction and more on conservation. Seton was instrumental in spearheading environmental movements in the United States.

In this lesson, students will first learn about the “success stories” of species whose protection under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 saved them from extinction. They will then engage their knowledge of US History during the latter half of the nineteenth century to brainstorm reasons why so many of our wild species’ populations declined dramatically during this period. Students will use segments from NATURE’s The Wolf that Changed America to explore nineteenth-century attitudes toward wolves in the western United States, and will learn of the groundbreaking efforts of Seton to change the popular view of the American wilderness and to launch organizations concerned with the environment. In the Culminating Activity, students will use web resources to research conservation organizations active today, sharing their findings with the class.

SUBJECT MATTER: Life Science, Biology, Environmental Science, U.S. History

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Students will be able to:

• Describe how Ernest Thomas Seton and his pursuit of Lobo the wolf changed America’s view on predatory animals;
• Describe how public opinion on animal management and endangered species protection has changed from the 19^th century to today;
• Understand the history of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and name some of the species the Act has helped protect;
• Name a list of modern-day conservation organizations and describe their initiatives.

STANDARDS

National Science Education Standards

Content Standard C: Life Science

As a result of their activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop understanding of:

THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF ORGANISMS

• Human beings live within the world’s ecosystems. Increasingly, humans modify ecosystems as a result of population growth, technology, and consumption. Human destruction of habitats through direct harvesting, pollution, atmospheric changes, and other factors are threatening current global stability, and if not addressed, ecosystems will be irreversibly affected.

Content Standard F: Science in Personal and Social Perspectives

As a result in their activities in grades 9-12, all students should develop understanding of:

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN LOCAL, NATIONAL, AND GLOBAL CHALLENGES

• Humans have a major effect on other species. For example, the influence of humans on other organisms occurs through land use-which decreases space available to other species-and pollution-, which changes the chemical composition of air, soil, and water.

US History Standards

National Center for History in the Schools

Era 6
The Development of the Industrial United States (1870-1900)

STANDARD 1: How the rise of corporations, heavy industry, and mechanized farming transformed the American people.

Standard 1D: The student understands the effects of rapid industrialization on the environment and the emergence of the first conservation movement.

Therefore, the student is able to:

• Explain the origins of environmentalism and the conservation movement in the late 19th century.

MEDIA COMPONENTS

NATURE: The Wolf That Changed America, selected segments.

Clip 1

“1893 New Mexico”

Clip 2

“The wolf problem”

Clip 3

“Trapping Lobo”

Clip 4

“Seton’s Legacy”

Access the streaming and downloadable video segments for this lesson at the Video Segments Page.

Web sites

The following are major US and international organizations active in the field of environmental conservation. Students will research these organizations in the Culminating Activity (or substitute others of your choice).

• Conservation International

• EarthWatch Institute

• Greenpeace

• National Audubon Society

• Nature Conservancy

• Sierra Club

• Student Conservation Association

• World Wildlife Fund

MATERIALS

For the teacher:

• Video Organizer Answer Key (PDF) (RTF)
• Computer with audiovisual projection system for showing video clips

For each student:

• Video Organizer (PDF) (RTF)
• Conservation Organizer (PDF) (RTF)
• Access to computer with Internet connection

PREP FOR TEACHERS

Preview all of the video segments and Web sites used in the lesson.

Download the video clips used in the lesson to your classroom computer, or prepare to watch them using your classroom’s Internet connection.

Bookmark the Web sites used in the lesson on each computer in your classroom. Using a social book marking took such as del.icio.us or diigo (or an online book marking utility such as portaportal) will allow you to organize all the links in a central location.

Make copies of the Video Organizer and Conservation Organizer for each student, and copy the Answer Key for yourself.

INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITY

1.      Tell the students that you are going to write a list on the board. The students’ task is to try to deduce what the items on the list have in common.

2. Begin writing the following list of species from the column on the left on the board (don’t share the rest of the chart yet). Allow the students to make guesses at any time as to how the species are related (the correct answer is that they are species whose protection under the Endangered Species Act allowed for their recovery – they are Endangered Species Act “success stories”).

(source: 100 Success Stories for Endangered Species Day 2007, http://www.esasuccess.org/reports/, 3/31/2009.)

3.      Explain the list you wrote on the board – these are all species whose protection under the Endangered Species Act has led to recovery. Share some of the data from the right two columns of the chart as examples of the recovery.

4.      Explain that the facts you’ve shared track the population since the 1960s and 1970s, when data became available as the government passed laws to protect species. But going back further in time to the 19^th century, some of the species that are exceedingly rare today were once extremely common. Species populations have changed dramatically from the 19^th century to today (for example, the now-extinct passenger pigeon was once one of the most abundant birds in North America, with a population that may have reached 6 billion individuals. During the 19^th century these numbers declined dramatically, and by 1900, the bird was extinct in the wild).

5.      Ask the students to brainstorm a list of factors that might have led to these species’ decline from the 19^th century to today. What was going on in late 19^th century America that would have led to these dramatic declines in species’ population? (This was an era of westward expansion and intense development of industry and agriculture on a grand scale. Also, attitudes toward species other than humans were generally very different. There was largely no public concept that species should be protected – and no laws or governmental agencies that tried to protect animals or plants other than humans. Excessive hunting and rampant habitat destruction had an adverse effect on many, many species.)

Proceed to ACTIVITIES