maybe they’re your worst nightmare
or perhaps they bring a smile to your
face
grizzly bears are famous for triggering
a whole range of different emotions
most of them passionate you might have
asked you a couple of questions let me
let me start with this one what’s the
first thing that pops into your head
when I say firstly bear I’ll ask her
what beautiful kill hunting Rudd hmm
don’t need him here trouble really big
scary magnificent wild creature Felton
nature a big bear holding a cupcake her
big rascal I’m Chris Morgan I’m an
ecologist and filmmaker bears have been
my specialty for 25 years I’ve worked
all over the world and even captured
radio collared and tracked them on foot
for 2,000 miles in the Canadian Rockies
so I got to know them really well
and what started as fear ended up as a
deep respect for an animal that
fascinates me but as much as that
my other passion became sharing what I’d
learned with other people that is
gentleman ears Chris Morgan trip I came
to Washington State 20 years ago and
made it home
and I set out to find out what other
people know and how they feel about
grizzly bears in the North Cascades you
Grizz Quiz
got time for a quick quiz have you any
idea how heavy a grizzly bear might be
when it’s born 80 pounds 15 pounds 14
pounds 12 pounds what if I told you one
pound when it’s born what does he want
liked do you know how many grizzly bears
they used to be in the lower 48
5,000 3000 we think they were 50 maybe a
hundred thousand Grizzlies in the lower
48 and now there are fewer than 2,000 so
we’ve done this amazing job of pushing
them into these little corners and we’re
standing on one of them right now and in
the North Cascades fewer than 20 maybe
only two or three but we get a handful
of unverified potential sightings every
year there was a photograph in 2010 and
a photograph in 2012 on those remote
cameras just 10 miles north of the
border what percentage of a bear’s diet
is meat 75 percent 50 percent I’ll say a
third generally less than 20 percent
which one would win in a smelling
competition a bloodhound or a grizzly
bear a bloodhound goes grizzly bear
he’s right it what does a bear eat
chipmunks
berries fish baby elk cold cattle moths
grass everything they can find good
answer
the Bears most common food plants they
are mostly grazers in the North Cascades
there are 100 plant species on the Bears
menu and they can eat a hundred thousand
berries or even 40,000 moths in a day
what kind of things tell you that bears
have been around scat cat if you want to
know if it’s bear poop or deer poop you
could look into the poop in it see if
either seeds or not can they eat berries
seeds and fertilizer all in one package
look out for tracks this is a rear track
of a grizzly bear the other thing you
can find is hair on trees where they’ve
been back rubbing on trees you know to
look out for that stuff and flipped
rocks tell you a bear has been searching
for insects and grubs what’s the
difference between a grizzly bear and a
black bear they have kind of a hump on
their shoulder and then a dist
nose and claw length is a big one a
grizzly bears dangerous of course they
can be they’re wild animals trying to
survive so attacks are usually about
defending food or Cubs or in response to
a surprise you can take some pretty
simple precautions though carry bear
spray it’s way more effective than
bullets wet noses and electric fences
don’t mix well
and make noise on the trail bears don’t
like surprises well I do you think
Grizzlies would be good or bad for the
economy well judging by places like
Yellowstone where people come to see
them yeah it’s probably good in a
national park such as this it would
attract people to maybe see see the
Bears more volatility grateful economy
definitely not good for the livestock
industry probably good all and all for
tourism anything actually a whole bunch
of studies have shown that they are
really good for the economy in terms of
bear viewing Yellowstone and other
places they pump millions of dollars a
year into the economy they’re just
locally by having grizzly bears they’re
awesome how would you feel about seeing
a grizzly bear in this ecosystem oh I
think it’d be cool man if I’ve gone
through here and I saw one you know it’d
be cool yeah
Final Thoughts
but maybe you have bigger questions are
bears part of our natural heritage are
they important for ecosystems should we
steward them for future generations a
majority of people think so
can we coexist with grizzly bears now
because people do stupid things no I
know they can’t coexist
they can’t coexist in Alaska oh
absolutely they do in Alaska absolutely
you’re here once before right
grizzly bears have seen glaciers and
entire species come and go they’ve been
a part of the North Cascades for around
20,000 years they now live in a time
when their fate will be decided by us
the National Park Service and the US
Fish and Wildlife Service in
collaboration with other agencies have
begun a process to figure out how to
recover the North Cascades grizzly bear
and not everyone is in agreement so it
has to be fair and open would you like
to see a healthy population of grizzly
bears in the North Cascades again why
certainly they’re part of the part of
the nightmare no yes what because the
food chain needs and help the food chain
keep going well I’m against it because
why would you want something that’s big
and tough here you need I just think
they’re a magnificent animal so anytime
that we can again bring something back
and have it to where our kids can see it
and know about it rather than just in a
book is amazing this is good for
conservation good for anything technical
girly wants to come in let him come in
he has a right to be here I don’t want
to see a mixed day
at all
recovery for the North Cascades grizzly
bear won’t be fast it might take a
hundred years none of us want to see
lions or elephants disappear in the same
way it’s time for us to think really
carefully together about the grizzly
bears place on earth and here in the
North Cascades
you got me on emotional
