Yellowstone National Park began an intensive bear management program in 1970, with the stated goal of restoring and maintaining natural populations of grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) and black bears (U. americanus). The Park closed the last of its large open-pit garbage dumps in 1971. During the decade 1970-79, bear management went through 3 phases. In 1970-72 most incorrigible bears that had developed strong ties to sources of human foods were translocated or removed. This period also included intensive efforts to educate people, increased law enforcement, intensified sanitation, refinement of management techniques, and development of a monitoring system to provide management information. The next period, 1973-78, represented a transition from emphasis on correction of a situation to awareness that a high level of preventive bear management must be a routine and never-ending part of Park operations. By the summer of 1979, the bears with prior knowledge of sources of unnatural foods within the Park appeared to be gone. Thus, in 10 years Park management appears to have attained the objective of restoring the populations of bears to subsistence on natural forage to the extent that outside influences beyond the Park's control will permit. The future of the grizzly bear in and around Yellowstone appears increasingly dependent on management decisions which give the bear adequate priority over human desires.
- Volume 5
- Issue
- Pages 152-158
- Publication Date 1 January 1983
- DOI 10.2307/3872532
- File Size 341.78 KB
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