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.

Before visiting Yellowstone National Park or “bear country” familiarize yourself with safety precautions in order to avoid bear encounters. “Run for your life” may seem like common sense if a grizzly approaches you, but such action is highly unlikely to foil an attack. The recommended steps are not easy to follow, but they offer the best chance for survival. Here’s what the experts say:

If you encounter a grizzly, do not run.

Avoid direct eye contact.

Walk away slowly, if the bear is not approaching.

If the bear charges, stand your ground (you cannot outrun it).

Don’t scream or yell. Speak in a soft monotone voice and wave your arms to let the animal know you are human. If you have pepper spray, prepare to use it.

If the grizzly charges to within 25 feet of where you’re standing, use the spray.

If the animal makes contact, curl up into a ball on your side, or lie flat on your stomach.

Try not to panic; remain as quiet as possible until the attack ends.

While in bear country, be aware that you may encounter a bear at any time.

Be sure the bear has left the area before getting up to seek help.

While in bear country, be aware that you may encounter a bear at any time.

Some other interesting things about grizzlies:

• Most human injuries from grizzly bears are caused by females acting aggressively to protect their young.

• Grizzlies are omnivores; they will eat almost anything. Although a large part of their diet is vegetation, grizzlies will also kill and eat large and small animals.

• Fewer than 1,100 grizzlies exist in the lower 48 states, in 5 populations in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Washington. An estimated 500 to 600 grizzlies populate the Greater Yellowstone area.

• Grizzlies are North America’s slowest reproducing land mammal. A female may not have her first litter until she is 5 or 6 years old, after which she will then typically produce two cubs every 2.5 years. Cubs from the same litter can be from different fathers. Grizzlies have a natural life span of 30 years or more.

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.

Wyoming Game and Fish Department Web site
http://gf.state.wy.us/wildlife/wildlife_management/grizzly/conservationdev.asp
Update on Yellowstone grizzly bear’s population delisting process.

Windows Into Wonderland
http://www.windowsintowonderland.org/bears/index.htm
Go on an electronic field trip to discover the grizzly bears of Yellowstone. Take a look at the bear’s habits and habitat, and then learn about the history and challenges of bear management.

The Grizzly Bear
http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/grizzlybear
This site provides facts and figures from the National Wildlife Federation. Select from an extensive list of articles about grizzly behavior and human and bear interactions.

Yellowstone: Bear Country!
http://www.yellowstoneparknet.com/wildlife/bears.php
This site offers a list of dos and don’ts from Yellowstone Park Travel Guide. Learn how to avoid running into grizzlies and find out what to do if you spot a bear.

Yellowstone’s Bears
http://www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/bears.htm
Browse through reports on grizzly sightings and read articles on the bear’s seasonal food habits and hibernation behaviors.

Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee
http://www.igbconline.org/
Learn about the federal government’s grizzly bear conservation strategy.

NPR: Grizzly Bears to Come Off Endangered List
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyid=5013084
NPR covers the delisting issue.

Natural Resources Defense Council
http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/animals/willcox.asp
Find out more about Louisa Willcox’s work to protect grizzly bears. For more on the delisting controversy, go to http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/animals/bears.asp.

The Endangered Species Program
http://endangered.fws.gov/
Access the entire text of the Endangered Species Act, view the list of threatened and endangered species, and find out about recovery programs.

Bear Identification Test
http://gf.state.wy.us/bearid/
Could you ID a grizzly in the wild? Take this test from Wyoming Game and Fish and find out.

Bears.org
http://www.bears.org/
Learn about other bear species such as the polar bear and the giant panda.

Related Episodes:

NATURE: Showdown at Grizzly River
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/grizzlies/
Visit a river teeming with salmon — and grizzlies! Then learn about bear cubs’ growing pains.

Books:

Craighead, Frank. For Everything There Is a Season: The Sequence of Natural Events in the Grand Teton-Yellowstone Area. New York: Falcon, 2001.

Craighead, Frank. Track of the Grizzly. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1982.

Craighead, John et al. The Grizzly Bears of Yellowstone: Their Ecology in the Yellowstone Ecosystem, 1959-1992. Washington, DC: Island Press, 1995.

Olsen, Lance. Field Guide to the Grizzly Bear. Bozeman MT: Sasquatch Books, 1992.

Schneider, Bill. Where the Grizzly Walks: The Future of the Great Bear. New York: Falcon, 2003.

The grizzly, America’s great bear, has come back from the brink of extinction. In large part the success of the species’ rejuvenation is due to its protection under the Endangered Species Act. In this lesson, students will study the history of the grizzly bear in the United States, its decline in population, and the extraordinary effort made to bring the grizzly back from near extinction.

Students will view segments of the NATURE episode, The Good, the Bad, and the Grizzly and will utilize a variety of Web sites to gather information about grizzlies and to understand the growing controversy surrounding their prevalence in the American West.

Students will examine the effect that the growing population of grizzlies has had on the surrounding environment and the people sharing the same land. The lesson culminates with an activity in which students write persuasively to defend a point of view relevant to the grizzly bear controversy.

This lesson may be used as either a pre or post viewing activity for NATURE: The Good, the Bad, and the Grizzly or in an independent unit for the science classroom.

Subject: Life Science, Language Arts

Grade Level: 6-8

Time Allotment

Three 45-minute class periods (Culminating Activity may require additional in-class or homework time)

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

• Describe the myths and misconception associated with grizzly bears;
• Describe the characteristics, habitat, and behaviors of grizzly bears;
• Explain the controversy surrounding the protection of grizzly bears under the Endangered Species Act;
• Articulate multiple points of view — ranchers, conservationists, and government officials on the grizzly bear controversy;
• Write persuasively to defend a point of view focused on the grizzly bear controversy.

Standards

From the Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning available online at: http://www.mcrel.org/compendium/search.asp

Science

Standard 6, Level III
http://www.mcrel.org/compendium/standardDetails.asp?subjectID=2&standardID=6

Students will come to understand the definition of an ecosystem: that it’s comprised of the co-existence of several different species in the same geographic space at the same time.

Students will know factors that affect the number and types of organisms an ecosystem can support (e.g., available resources, abiotic factors such as quantity of light and water, range of temperatures, and soil composition; disease; competition from other organisms within the ecosystem; predation.)

Students will know ways in which organisms interact and depend on one another through food chains and food webs in an ecosystem.

Students will understand relationships among organisms and their physical environment.

Language Arts

http://www.mcrel.org/compendium/standardDetails.asp?subjectID=7&standardID=7

Students will gather and use information for research purposes.

Students will understand a variety of messages conveyed by visual media (e.g., main concept, details, themes or lessons, viewpoints.)

Students will use a variety of criteria to evaluate and form viewpoints of visual media (e.g., evaluates the effectiveness of informational media, such as Web sites, documentaries, news programs; recognizes a range of viewpoints and arguments; establishes criteria for selecting or avoiding specific programs.)

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Endangered Species Program
http://endangered.fws.gov/
This section of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service site is dedicated to the Endangered Species Act. “The Endangered Species Act and What We Do”
(http://endangered.fws.gov/whatwedo.html) section of the site explains the act, how it is implemented, and includes a Kid’s Corner as well as local contacts. The site also has a search function to find up-to-the-minute information on threatened or endangered species.

The Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center
http://www.Grizzlydiscoveryctr.com/
The Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center is a unique not-for-profit bear and wolf preserve. Their primary mission is to provide visitors to the Yellowstone area with an opportunity to learn about, view, and ultimately appreciate the grizzly bear and gray wolf.

Yellowstone National Park
http://www.nps.gov/yell/index.htm
The official Web site of Yellowstone National Park contains information on the park’s history, a facts link, a search function, and a section especially designed for kids.

The Grizzly Bear Outreach Project
http://www.bearinfo.org/FAQ.htm
This site offers many grizzly bear resources including pictures of grizzlies, FAQs, the history of the grizzly bear, and tips for bear safety.

Windows into Wonderland
http://www.windowsintowonderland.com/bears/index.htm
Take your students on an electronic field trip to Yellowstone National Park. Explore bear ecology and history and the challenges of bear management. Students can also pose questions to experts.

THE WASHINGTON POST Article “Grizzlies May Lose Endangered Status
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1061-2004May29.html
This article from THE WASHINGTON POST examines both sides of the controversial issue of grizzly bear protection under the Endangered Species Act.

NPR’s Living on Earth
http://www.loe.org/shows/shows.htm?programID=99-P13-00001#feature1
This site houses the transcript of the “Grizzly Politics” episode of NPR’s LIVING ON EARTH PROGRAM.

Procedures for Teachers

Materials & Media Components

Video:

NATURE’s The Good, the Bad, and the Grizzly

For the class:

Computers with Internet access
TV
VCR
Chalkboard or whiteboard
True/False and Not Sure placards for the corners of your classroom

For each student:

Grizzly Quest worksheet

Prep for Teachers

Prior to teaching this lesson, bookmark the Web sites used in the lesson on each computer in your classroom, or upload all links to an online bookmarking utility such as www.portaportal.com. Preview all the Web sites (listed at the end of the lesson) and video clips used in the lesson to make certain that they are appropriate for your students. CUE the tape of NATURE: The Good, the Bad, and the Grizzly to just after the opening credits where you see the sign that says “Caution: Bears are dangerous” and you hear the murmur of a crowd. Make three signs on 8 x 11 paper. On the first sign put the word “TRUE.” On the second sign put the word “FALSE” and on the third sign, put the words, “NOT SURE.” Tape one sign in each of three corners in your classroom. Download, print, and make copies of the “Grizzly Quest” worksheet for each student in your classroom.

When using media, provide students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION, a specific task to complete and/or information to identify during or after viewing of video segments, Web sites, or other multimedia elements.

Introductory Activity

1) Tell students that they are about to learn about the majestic grizzly bear, its history in the United States and struggle to come back from the brink of extinction. Tell your students that before you begin your in-depth investigation of grizzly bears, you would like to assess their knowledge.

2) Explain to your students that you will be reading to them a series of statements about grizzly bears. Point out that there are signs in three corners of the classrooms. Tell your students that as you read each statement you would like them to physically move to the corner with the sign that accurately reflects their opinion. Tell students that they are free to present information or knowledge that they have to other students and try to convince others to join them.

3) Read your students the following grizzly bear statements and ask your students to move to the appropriate corner of your classroom after each statement is read. Do not offer any additional information at this time.

• Grizzly bears live throughout the United States.
• Farmers and ranchers can kill grizzlies that cause damage to their livestock and property.
• On average, grizzly bears live 20 years.
• Grizzly bears migrate south for the winter.
• A grizzly bear’s diet consists of tree bark, apples, honey, and occasionally, people.
• Most grizzly bear attacks occur when surprised by people.
• Grizzly bears are generally twice the size of black bears.
• Grizzly bears will feed on garbage if it is available.
• Grizzly bears can run as fast as Olympic sprinters — up to 35 miles per hour.
• Grizzlies have a prominent shoulder hump.

4) Distribute the “Grizzly Quest” worksheet. Tell your students that they will now investigate each of the ten statements for their accuracy and determine if each is a myth or fact. Ask your students to log onto the following Web sites: The Grizzly Bear Outreach Project at http://www.bearinfo.org/FAQ.htm, Windows into Wonderland at
http://www.windowsintowonderland.com/bears/index.htm and The Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center at http://www.Grizzlydiscoveryctr.com/ . Provide your students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION asking them to investigate the Web sites and determine if the ten statements are myth or fact. If the statements are myths, students should rewrite them to reflect factual accuracy.

Learning Activity

1. Tell your students that they are about to examine the issues surrounding the grizzly bear’s history and survival in America, specifically in Yellowstone National Park. Insert NATURE: The Good, the Bad, and the Grizzly into your VCR. CUE the tape to just after the opening credits where you see the sign that says “Caution: Bears are dangerous” and you hear the murmur of a crowd. Provide your students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION by asking them to predict the cost of grizzly recovery. Play the tape until you see a grizzly running on a paved road and the narrator says, “Success always comes at a price and someone has to pay.” Pause the tape. Check for comprehension, and again ask your students what the price is for bringing grizzlies back from the brink of extinction. (Answers will vary.)
2. Provide your students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION by asking them to determine who is affected by the recovery of the grizzlies? Play the tape from the previous pause point and pause the tape when you see rancher, Amee Barrus, sitting in her kitchen, and says, “we see ‘em you know, every month we see two or three.” Check for comprehension, and again ask your students who is affected by the recovery of the grizzlies. (Students answers will vary, however, lead them to see that local ranchers are directly affected by the influx of grizzlies.)
3. Provide your students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION, asking them to determine how ranchers typically dealt with grizzlies in the past. Play the tape from the previous pause point and pause when you see rancher, John Barrus, sitting in his living room and says, “Now, they’re not scared of us, and we’re still scared of them.” Check for comprehension and ask your students how ranchers dealt with grizzlies in the past. (Students should know that up until the early ’70s, it was legal for ranchers to hunt grizzly bears. This helped ranchers protect their livestock. Under the Endangered Species Act, it is illegal for a rancher to kill the bears.)
4. Provide your students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION by asking them to determine the role of the Game and Fish Department. Play the tape from the previous pause point and pause when you see the men lifting a grizzly into a truck bed and the narrator says, “…livestock, property, and public safety.” Check for comprehension and ask your students to name the Game and Fish Department’s responsibilities. (The Game and Fish Department is responsible for keeping the peace between bears and humans across more than six thousand square miles of mountains and forest. It is their job to trap and relocate problem bears — bears that have become a threat to livestock, property, and public safety.)
5. Provide your students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION by asking them to describe the Game and Fish Department’s procedure for dealing with problem bears. Play the tape from the previous pause point and pause when you see Mark Bruscino talking to the camera and says, “…most of our complaints are coming from farms, ranches, or rural subdivisions, resorts, and those sorts of places.” Check student comprehension and ask what the procedure is for dealing with problem bears. (Once a bear complaint has been filed with the Game and Fish Department, the bear is trapped and tagged with a radio collar. The bear is then released into wild country. If a problem bear returns, it may have to be killed.) Ask students, “Where do the majority of complaint calls come from?” (The majority of calls come from farms, ranches, rural subdivisions, and resorts.)
6. Provide your students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION by determining what the narrator means by the grizzly’s “extraordinary turnaround.” Play the tape from the previous pause point and pause when you hear the narrator say, “However, did we achieve such a thing?” and you see a bear climbing out of a trap and running away. Ask students, “What does Mark mean when he says ‘It’s kind of like fish jumping out of a bucket’?” (It’s harder to find wild country where bears can be safely released and relocated. They continue to come back into the local human population.) Ask students to frame the central problem presented in this episode of NATURE. (Students should understand from this section of the video that the law put in place to protect the grizzly has worked so well that there is now an abundance of bears roaming the park and the surrounding environment.)
7. In this these next segments of video, students will examine the history of the grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park. They’ll look at the decrease and increase of the grizzly population, the factors that contributed to the population fluctuation, and the law in place to protect America’s great bear. Provide your students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION by asking them to identify what factors led to the decrease in grizzly population in the United States. Play the tape from the previous pause point and pause when you see a picture of a U.S. map and the narrator says, “isolated islands where a few hundred bears were just hanging on.” Check for comprehension, and ask your students what factors led to the decrease in grizzly population in the United States. (In an effort to conquer the West, grizzlies were eliminated in most of the United States.)
8. Tell your students that they will now look at the unique relationship bears and humans shared during the early days of Yellowstone National Park. Provide your students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION by asking them to describe the relationship between grizzlies and humans, and determine how the grizzlies lost their glory. Play the tape from the previous pause point and pause when you see grizzlies eating from a dump-site and the narrator says, “…the dumps were closed.” Check for comprehension, and ask your students to describe the relationship between humans and bears. (During the first days of the park, bears entertained tourists for the promise of food. Later, park rangers set up regular bear feedings to draw grizzlies for the crowd. Grizzlies became dependent on handouts, namely garbage, and had forgotten how to hunt.) Ask students to predict what they think will happen to the grizzlies once Yellowstone’s dumps are closed. (Accept all answers.)
9. Explain to your students that they have just made a prediction, and that their FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION for the next clip is to determine if any of their predictions are correct. Play the video from the previous pause point and pause when you see a grizzly in a campground standing next to a tent and the narrator says, “…they got aggressive, they were destroyed.” Check with students to see if their predictions were correct. (Without handouts, grizzlies became aggressive, and as a result, were killed.)
10. Tell your students that in 1975, the grizzly bear was placed under the protection of the Endangered Species Act. The recovery of the grizzly has been considered a major success, but this success comes with challenges. In these next segments of video, students will examine the new and growing population of grizzlies, and the implications the bears have on local ranchers and communities.

Provide your students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION by asking them to calculate the average yearly increase in bear population since the early ’80s. Play the tape when the narrator says, “Left on their own, they have proven more resilient and resourceful than anyone predicted,” and you see a mother grizzly walking along a river with her cub in tow. Pause after you see a map of the U.S. that highlights the Grizzly population, and you hear the narrator say, “..two national parks and lots of private land.” Check for comprehension. Ask students what the yearly average of new bears born in Yellowstone National Parks. Have students calculate to total number of bears born between 1984-2004. (On average, 26 new grizzlies enter the population each year. Between 1984-2004, approximately 520 grizzlies were born in Yellowstone.)

11) Tell students that in the next segment, we’ll hear one rancher’s point of view. Provide your students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION by asking them to explain what the narrator means when he says, “But the bears don’t recognize these boundaries. And one man’s wilderness icon is another’s worst nightmare.” Play the clip from the previous pause point and pause when you see rancher, Terry Schramm, sitting in a brown leather chair and says, “Now who’s got the problem?” Ask students, “What did the narrator mean when he said, ‘And one man’s wilderness icon is another’s worst nightmare.’” (Students should understand that although the majestic grizzly is a symbol of wild America, the influx of bears has affected many ranchers’ livelihoods.)

12) Provide your students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION by asking them to explain what Stan Murdock means when he says,”…we’re in a dead man’s spiral with this cattle industry up there in the middle of those bears.” Play the tape from the previous pause point, and pause when you see Stan Murdock addressing the Wyoming Fish and Game Commission saying, “I don’t believe we ought to leave predators running two-legged on our streets, or four-legged in our cattle because the outcome can be expected.” Check for comprehension and ask your students what Stan Murdock meant. (Ranchers are feeling that they have no recourse under the law to protect their animals from the bears and will eventually lose their businesses.)

13) Ask students to recall the Game and Fish Department’s role in protecting the bears. (Their role is to keep peace between bears and humans.) Provide your students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION by asking them to describe how Mark Bruscino of the Fish and Game Department feels about the bear predicament. Play the tape from the previous pause point and pause when you see Mark Bruscino talking on a car phone and saying, “…and I need some places to keep these bears.” Check for student comprehension, and ask, How does Mark Bruscino feel about the bear predicament?” Accept all answers. (Students should understand that it is a challenge to keep the balance between adhering to the federal guidelines and keeping peace with the local community.)

14) In the upcoming segments, students will be presented with two opposing viewpoints on whether to keep the bear listed under the Endangered Species Act. Fast forward the tape to where you see a grizzly in a cage, and you hear the narrator say, “Do bears still need our protection?” Provide students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION by asking them to listen to the two opposing viewpoints and record the reasoning presented. Play the tape and pause when you see a man with a grey mustache looking through binoculars and you hear the narrator say, “They’re treated to a thrill only Yellowstone can provide.” Ask students to share their findings. Fast forward the tape to where you see a pine tree falling, and the narrator says, “But all around grizzly country, development is picking up pace.” Provide students with a FOCUS FOR MEDIA INTERACTION by asking them to continue to listen to both sides of the argument and record the reasoning presented.

15) Ask your students to brainstorm who they think would be in favor of keeping the grizzly bear on the Endangered Species List, based on the information they have gathered from the video. Then, ask your students to brainstorm who they think would be opposed to keeping the grizzly bear on the Endangered Species List. What do they personally think about the grizzly bear controversy? (Student answers will vary.)

Culminating Activity/Assessment:

The purpose of this activity is to encourage students to examine the relationships between humans and animals and how they impact each other’s environment.

1) Draw a PRO-”Endangered Species Act” and a CON- “Endangered Species Act” column on the white board. Using their notes taken during the viewing of the video, ask students to list the pros and cons of keeping the grizzly bear listed under the Endangered Species Act. Record all student responses in the columns you’ve created on the white board. Make sure students respond with facts that are based on their investigation rather than subjective opinion.

2) Ask your students who some of the individuals are that have a vested interest in the grizzly bear controversy. Who might be an advocate for delisting the bear? Who might be against delisting the bear?

3) Tell students to select an individual who has a vested interest in the grizzly bear controversy, and to write a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reflecting their perspective on the issue. The letter, whether for or against the grizzly’s protected status under the Endangered Species Act, must be supported by evidence. The letter must also reference the source of information used in the letter.

SOCIAL STUDIES/ECONOMICS
Explore Native Americans’ relationship to bears. How are bears portrayed in their various cultures? Have students research Native American artwork and myths involving bears.

ENGLISH/LANGUAGE ARTS
Have students take a position as either a rancher, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife representative, or a conservationist. Have them debate whether the grizzly bear should or should not be de-listed from the Endangered Species List. As with the Culminating Activity, students must support their position with evidence and research.

Community Connections

• Contact your local fish and game commission, and investigate whether or not there are any endangered species in your area.
• Conduct an online interview with a bear expert from one of the Web sites under Online Resources.
• Interview farmers or ranchers in your area, and research the greatest challenges they face in turning a profit.

ORGANIZERS FOR STUDENTS

The following links will open a new window. Each new window
will contain a Student Organizer or Activity sheet for you to print out. Close
the new window to return to this page.

Grizzly Quest worksheet

As the grizzly bears of Yellowstone settle into their winter hibernation, the debate concerning their future will remain decidedly active. A formal proposal to remove the grizzlies from the federal government’s list of endangered species is expected in 2005. But the proposition is an extremely complicated one, fraught with controversy.

When Lewis and Clark explored the West in the early 19th century, an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 grizzlies roamed the land between the Pacific Ocean and the Great Plains. Awed by the formidable grizzly, Lewis wrote, “Captain Clark & Drewyer killed the largest brown bear this evening which we have yet seen. It was a most tremendous looking animal, and extremely hard to kill.”

Lewis’ words underscore what was and remains the primary cause of grizzly bear decimation — human and bear interaction. In 1975, it was thought that only 200 to 300 grizzlies populated the Yellowstone area, prompting the Fish and Wildlife service to list them as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Nine thousand square miles of land in parts of Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana were established as a recovery zone. As a listed species, the grizzlies benefit from ESA defenses such as the restriction of their transport and sale, and protection from federal or business activities that could adversely affect them. Federal funds are also given to wildlife agencies to study and recover the bears

Yellowstone National Park. Now, roughly 30 years later, some people say the bears no longer need ESA protection because they’ve met required population, distribution, and reproduction targets. “There are about 600 bears in Yellowstone now, and their population is increasing about four percent each year,” says Chris Servheen, grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Steps towards delisting the grizzly began years ago, but two recently released documents mark the final steps toward an official proposal. The first document is the “Conservation Strategy,” an agreement released in 2003 by federal and state agencies on how to monitor and manage the grizzly population once it’s delisted. The second is the “Draft Environmental Impact Statement ” (DEIS), released in 2004 by the Forest Service. It addresses how the six national forests in the Greater Yellowstone Area will manage grizzly habitat upon delisting.

These documents have been met with fierce resistance from delisting opponents who say the plans fall short of fully protecting the bears. Louisa Willcox, Director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC’s) wild bears project points to one example: “One third of the Yellowstone grizzlies are living outside the recovery zone. If you want to keep these bears alive, you need to extend habitat.” Groups such as the NRDC and the Sierra Club say the DEIS calls for managing the bears on an “island” when it should be protecting all occupied habitat and connecting it to other ecosystems where the bears can access seasonal foods, breed, and escape natural disasters.

Doug Honnold, an attorney for EarthJustice, says the “Conservation Strategy” also relies too heavily on state management, leaving the bears susceptible to ranching and hunting interests. Delisting opponents are also concerned with such factors as vulnerable food sources, housing development, and the financial interests of logging, mining, and oil businesses.

Defenders of delisting, however, say that the “Conservation Strategy”, years in the making, will uphold the management and protection of the grizzlies. “It’s taken 24 years to even consider recovery and delisting because we’re too meticulous,” says the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Servheen. “In the case that the bear population suddenly starts dropping, we can quickly place them back under the ESA with an emergency measure.”

“The ESA requires Fish and Wildlife to recover animals and produce a plan to sustain that, which they’ve done for the grizzlies,” adds Charles Schwartz, head of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team. “What’s not on the ESA, however, is a whole series of ‘what ifs.’”

But some claim these “what ifs” are becoming a bit too real, citing such cases as the recent lease of 175,000 acres of Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest for oil and gas development. Much of this land is roadless and prized for its wildlife. In September 2004, public outcry and pressure from Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal temporarily prevented the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management from the leasing the land until public concerns are further evaluated.

Amidst these intense debates, there are points on which several parties agree. The first is the need for the Yellowstone grizzlies to be connected to other grizzly ecosystems. Many favor a plan to open a corridor through grizzly territories in Yellowstone, other parts of northwestern United States, and Canada. For the linkage to work, the grizzlies would have to return to one of their ancestral homelands — the Bitterroot ecosystem of central Idaho and Western Montana, from where they were driven out of in the early 1900s. While a proposal to reintroduce grizzlies there was nixed by the Bush administration in 2001, it is still a plan that many hope to implement.

Another critical element, upon which many agree, is the need for funding. An estimated $3.5 million will be needed each year to fund research, public education, monitoring, and other grizzly-related items. Current funding is roughly $2 million. If the bears are delisted, federal funds, including those provided in ESA Section 6, will be lost. “That’s the 64 million dollar question — how are we going to pay for this?” says Willcox. One idea is to establish a conservation endowment trust to be funded by Congress, but a definitive strategy remains unclear.

Funding or not, the drive to delist forges ahead. Other species have been delisted from the Endangered Species Act without a fight, but not the Yellowstone grizzlies. They’re the most studied grizzly population in the world. And aside from a population in Northwest Montana, they’re the last grizzly stronghold in the United States. They now have the dubious distinction of being unwitting players in a struggle between science, politics, and business that, at its core, revolves around territory.

*The Forest Service’s DEIS was open to public comments from August 13th, 2004 to November 12th, 2004. A delisting rule is expected in mid 2005, and a final rule by the end of 2005.

–Irene Roxanne Tejaratchi

It was a sight that became an icon of American tourism: A shaggy brown grizzly bear ambling down a roadside in Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park, surrounded by gawking adults and wide-eyed children leaning out car windows. Indeed, as NATURE’s The Good, the Bad, and the Grizzly shows, “bear jams” had become a significant problem on Yellowstone’s roads by the 1960s — even as the magnificent mammals edged close to local extinction.

Luckily, the Endangered Species Act helped save Yellowstone’s grizzly bears from that sad fate. But that doesn’t mean the great bears are out of the woods. Yellowstone’s grizzlies continue to be a source of fascination and controversy, and despite their growing numbers the bear’s future is still in doubt.

Not Your Average Bear

When President Ulysses S. Grant created Yellowstone National Park in 1872, the area was renowned for its beautiful scenery and spectacular geysers. But the park’s grizzly bears soon became one of its best-known attractions. By the late 1800s, dozens of nearly tame bears were gathering at garbage piles near park hotels to gorge on leftovers. Often, humans stood by and watched the spectacle. In the early 1900s, motorists began reporting bears ambling along park roads begging for handouts. The bold carnivores would sometimes approach stopped cars, pushing their snouts into windows.

Not surprisingly, such close encounters occasionally turned dangerous. Between 1931 and 1959, each year an average of 48 park visitors were injured (sometimes fatally) by bears. During this period, plenty of bears were killed in motor collisions. As the bear and human injury toll mounted, park officials began to consider ways of returning bears to their wild ways. In 1970, they took action, enacting tough new rules against feeding bears, closing garbage dumps, and installing bear-proof trash cans. It worked. Soon, bear-caused injuries dropped to less than one a year.

While people were safer, the bears were not. Hunting and habitat loss had driven local bear numbers to record lows. In 1975, federal officials declared Yellowstone’s grizzlies “threatened,” estimating that about 200 to 300 bears remained in the park and on surrounding lands. Soon, biologists were working hard on plans for the bear’s recovery.

A grizzly tries to catch cutthroat trouts

An Amazing Rebound

Today, that effort has paid off. Biologists believe that 500 to 600 bears now live in the Yellowstone region, and populations continue to grow. As a result, federal biologists, park officials, and others are now considering the removal of the bear from the endangered species list — an idea that has prompted plenty of controversy. (See Delisting the Grizzly.)

Some conservationists say that the grizzly bear’s future is still uncertain. They argue that in order to survive, bears need plenty of food and room to roam — two things that could be in increasingly short supply in the future.

Male grizzlies need territories that cover 813 to 2075 square miles. While female bears’ home range varies from 309 to 537 square miles. But a building boom is beginning to enclose the lands around Yellowstone, as newcomers build homes and businesses, and mining firms are increasingly targeting the area for exploration. All this development increases the chances that bears will come into conflict with people or be killed in collisions with cars and trucks. Wildlife biologists can often solve these problems by moving bears to wilder areas. But sometimes these endeavors are not successful and problem bears are euthanized.

Bear biologists are also concerned about the grizzly food supply. In particular, they point to possible problems with four key food sources: the seeds produced by whitebark pine trees; Yellowstone cutthroat trout, which live in the region’s cold waters; army cutworm moths, which the bears dig out of high-altitude soils; and bison carcasses.

In recent years, deadly bark beetles and a disease known as blister rust have been decimating whitebark pines. While not all bears feast on this high-fat snack, some rely on them to provide the energy needed to get through the winter.

The cutthroat trout, which the bears snatch from the waters where these fish spawn, are threatened by the lake trout, a non-native predator, as well as by whirling disease, a neurological illness. The disease has already killed off cutthroat living in one major tributary of Yellowstone Lake.

The cutworm moths cover vast distances during their annual migrations between Yellowstone’s rocky peaks and the fertile fields of the Great Plains. But their numbers may be reduced by pesticide spraying in agricultural areas.

Grizzlies don’t typically kill bison, but they will feed on their carcasses. Some conservationists worry that Yellowstone’s bison population could be reduced by policies that allow some of the grazers to be captured and killed if they leave the park. Bison herds have also been affected by brucellosis, a devastating disease that has forced wildlife managers to kill infected animals.

Supporters of delisting say that these challenges can be overcome and even if the grizzly is taken off the list, state governments have promised to protect the bears and their habitat. They also note that, through more than a century of conflict and controversy, the bears have shown a remarkable and inspiring ability to adapt to changing circumstances.

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