Yellowstone Grizzly Mortalities Inch Upward

Missoula - Dr. Chris Servheen, the scientist in charge of grizzly bear recovery for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Mark Brucino, Bear Management Specialist for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department announced today that an elk hunter killed an additional adult female grizzly bear in September in self-defense. This brings the 2004 female mortality count in the Yellowstone Ecosystem to 5. Dr. Servheen said, "With this death, we have hit the mortality threshold for female bears established in the 1993 Recovery Plan. This mortality limit has not been exceeded since 1997." The female mortality limit allows for humans to kill no more than 1.2% of the estimated minimum population. The total number of female mortalities has been high the last 5 years. Female deaths averaged 3.2/year from 1995-1999, but jumped to an average of 6.2/year since 2000. Most mortalities during the last 6 years have been attributable to two causes: self-defense and management removals. Self-defense deaths are a result of hunters inadvertently bumping into grizzly bears, usually while elk hunting, or protecting an elk carcass from bears. Most management removals are a result of grizzly bears coming into contact with humans in developed areas. At least 50% of these management deaths have occurred on private land outside the grizzly bear recovery zone. Dr. Servheen said, "Reducing female grizzly bear mortality is essential to eventually achieving recovery and delisting for the Yellowstone Ecosystem grizzly population. This is the top priority of state and federal agencies. We have been working on mortality reduction since the mid-1980's and we continue to work on it". Dr. Servheen also said, "As grizzly bears expand into new habitats, particularly into places where people live, the agencies need cooperation from local citizens to help conserve grizzly bears. People must be willing to do their part by securing human foods and garbage from bears and trying to minimize mortalities associated with elk hunting." The Yellowstone Ecosystem Subcommittee has identified sanitation as a key issue on private lands and is working with local citizens and interest groups to deal with the issue. Dr. Servheen also pointed out the mortality limits in the current Recovery Plan are conservative, "When we established these mortality limits back in 1993, we intentionally set a conservative level to ensure that the population would grow and expand. In the past 12 years, we have exceeded the mortality threshold 3 times, but we know that the population has been growing at about 4% per year during the same period." Dr. Servheen stressed, "The public must understand that at the rate the population is growing, eventually all the suitable habitat in this ecosystem will be occupied by grizzly bears. At that point people need to realize that we no longer need or want a growing population and mortality limits will have to be adjusted to stabilize population growth." As new information becomes available, adjustments to mortality limits are expected. These adjustments will always be based on the best available science. Efforts by the Grizzly Bear Study Team under the direction of Dr. Chuck Schwartz, USGS Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, are currently underway to evaluate and improve these limits. Dr. Schwartz noted that recent science clearly indicates that grizzly bear numbers have increased in the past decade and have expanded well beyond the current Recovery Zone boundaries. He also said, "Although we have reached the female mortality threshold this year, and it is certainly cause for concern, it does not constitute a crisis. It's the study team's responsibility to monitor mortalities as part of the recovery process. These mortality limits were designed to raise red flags and alert the agencies and the public to increase efforts when necessary to insure we continue to maintain a healthy grizzly population. The process is working!" Hunters and others are cautioned to use care when hunting in grizzly country and to always carry bear pepper spray. Useful information on how to avoid conflicts with grizzly bears is available at all state wildlife management, Forest Service, and National Park Service offices in the Yellowstone area.