The jagged, snow – covered, spectacular Teton Mountain Range, the sage-brush grassland and the cottonwood forests in the Snake River valley shone in the golden light of the bright morning sun. In late May 2001 we were on a day visit to Yellowstone National Park (YNP) from Jackson Hole in the state of Wyoming. Our drive along the well-maintained roads took us to Oxbow Bend which gives a gorgeous view of Grand Teton, Waterfalls Canyon Fire, Lewis lake, Old Faithful, Hayden Valley, Yellowstone Lake, West Thumb Geyser, Jackson Lake and back to Jackson Hole. All along there were varieties of colourful flowers but golden yellow flowers such as balsamroot (Balsamorriza sagittata) were dominant among them. On a short walk along the drab-coloured floor of the Hayden Valley we encountered many hidden beauties: the golden yellow Ranunculus sp. the yellowish Eriogonum spp., the purple Phacelia sp. and the rose-coloured shooting star, Dodecatheon sp.

Although the visit was brief, it gave us an opportunity to see a 3-4 year old male grizzly bear feeding along a meadow unmindful of a fleet of cars and visitors on the road. Old faithful jettisoned steam and hot water out of its crater into air, which it has been doing faithfully at an approximate interval of 60 minutes since its discovery in 1870. Hundreds of elk (Cervus elaphus) and bison (Bison bison), with numerous young golden calves, foraged or rested peacefully. Yellowstone River flowed gently. The Yellowstone Lake with its blue waters in the backdrop of conifer forests and snow-capped mountains was picturesque. West Thumb Geysers bubbled and steamed as they have been bubbling and steaming for thousands of years. It’s multicoloured steaming geysers, which warmed the surrounding area, in the backdrop of the blue lake, were breathtakingly beautiful. May be in the bygone past native North Americans selected areas around such geysers to camp in the winter. As I stood and watched the amazing natural phenomena I thanked God for giving me the second opportunity to stand before these natural wonders. My first trip to YNP was in July 1980 when Dr. John Seidensticker and Dr. Devra Kleiman of the Smithsonian Institution took me there as part of my postdoctoral research and training.

The YNP has quite a history. Pre-Cambrian Yellowstone was a pristine wilderness. Animals were abundant and the native Americans were important members of the biota. Although Blackfeet, Nez Perce, Shoshone (Sheep eaters) and Crow-Indians wandered through the area hunting game, catching fish and collecting fruits, nuts and tubers, only a small band of Shoshone lived there year around. There is evidence to show that large-scale wildfires have occurred in the Yellowstone area in a 300-400 year cycle. The diversity of Yellowstone vegetation in the early 1800’s was as a result of large fires in the 1700’s, some probably due to deliberate burning by native Americans and the others set by lightning.

One ecological event in YNP, which in the recent past drew the attention of the world, was the massive wildfires of 1988. When YNP was established in 1872, well over half of the Park was covered with young stands of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta). This is a successional stage projected to be eventually replaced by Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmanii), Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), sub-alpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) and whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis), the climax forest vegetation of the prevailing climate. From the 1880’s to the 1970’s the Park’s policy was to put out all fires (man-made as well as caused by lightning) as soon as possible. In a way the policy was loading up the Park with kindling. Yellowstone’s dry climate and long winters greatly retard the removal of dead wood through decay. Much of the kindling accumulated for nearly a century was still on the ground in 1988. On August 20, 1988 wind-driven fires, which led to eight huge fires, invaded almost half the Park’s territory despite the best efforts of some 10,000 civilian and military fire fighters. Later when the fires were put out, Park officials wondered whether people would come to see the Park with its blackened stretches and other changes. Nevertheless, as if to mourn the catastrophe, more people came to see the Park devastated by fire and visitation in October was the highest for that month in Park history. Now the lodgepole pine forests have regenerated in many areas, and the trees vary in height from 5 to 8 metres. When I saw these young forests, my thoughts went back to one anxious moment I had here in July 1980, when I lost my way for about 20-30 minutes while tracking grizzlies on the ground with the team led by Dr. Richard Knight. The cold, the tall giant conifers, which I thought will be difficult to climb and escape, and the fact that there were grizzlies around made me nervous.

When the Park was established, wolves (Canis lupus), white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and perhaps fishers (Martes pennanti) and wolverines (Gulo gulo) were possibly absent. Other mammals of North–America, -bison, elk, moose (Alces alces), mule deer (Odococoleus hemionus), pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra americana), bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis), American blackbear (Ursus americanus), grizzly bear, lynx (Lynx canadensis), bobcat (L. rufus), mountain lion (Felis concolor) and beavers (Castor canadensis) - were common. More than 200 species of birds are known to inhabit YNP at least part of the year. Notable among these, because they are considered rare or endangered, are the trumpeter swan (Cygnus buccinator), the bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus). Where fish did occur they were plentiful. Notable among them is the pure strain of Yellowstone cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkibouvieri), the main game fish, which has evolved in the Park for the last 12,000 years. Cutthroat trout is one of the important prey items for the grizzly bear. Among the non-native, the most prominent species is the mackinaw or lake trout (Salveninus namaycush) which was introduced in the Park in 1898.

Before 1872, the area of YNP had been visited, explored and surveyed by both official and unofficial parties. The first official exploration was by Meriweather Lewis (a naturalist) and William Clark (a cartographer). Both went on an expedition from St. Louis in 1804 to the Pacific Ocean and back covering some 12,800 km in 28 months. President Thomas Jefferson, who encouraged the expedition, hoped that the explorers would find an easy water route to the Pacific Ocean but he also thoughtfully urged them to take notes of the flora and fauna of the region. Amateur naturalists and careful explorers Lewis and Clark described hundreds of plants and animals previously unknown to science. Three of the plants they recorded would become state flowers: the Mock orange (Philadelphus lewisii) in Idaho, the Bitterroot (Lewisia rediviva) in Montana and the Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium) in Wyoming. The expedition also resulted in a bird named for Lewis, the Lewis woodpecker, Melanerpes lewis and for Clark Nucifraga columbiana or Clark’s nutcracker.

One of the most remarkable experiences in the exploration of Yellowstone occurred when Truman Everts, a member of Washburn Expedition party, was separated from his companions during September-October 1870. In a near tragic mishap his horse threw him and he lost his mount and broke his spectacles. Without a horse, his glasses, supplies or equipment of any kind except a hand lens he managed to survive the cold by using the lens and the sun to start a fire. Purely by accident he found that the starchy roots of a thistle (Cirsium foliolosum) was edible and the plant nourished him for 37 days after which he was discovered by the search party.

The Park, which was reserved "a public park and pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of people", and a wonderland with abundant wildlife and enchanting areas of great scenic beauty gradually attracted a large number of tourists. The number of visitors in 1872 was 300, which grew to 2,957, 857 in 1991 and a cumulative human visitation of 95,051,076. In the early years, the vast resources of the Park were unguarded and exploited by the people who came to work and establish business. There was thoughtless slaughter of animals and the workers ate Park elk and bison and the same fare appeared on the hotel menus. Timber and firewood were smuggled out and tourists had unrestricted access to thermal features and removed souvenir specimens. To stem the tide of abuse the Secretary of the Interior requested the military to assume management of the Park, which began in August 1886 and ended after 30 years with the handing over of the administration to the newly formed National Park Service.

A major concern of early administrators was to increase the Park’s populations of elk and bison because these were the animals that tourists wanted to see. By 1897 only 24 bison remained of the thousands of mountain-dwelling animals that formerly roamed the Park. To save the ‘Yellowstone bison’ animals from relict plains-dwelling herds were brought to the Yellowstone Plateau. By 1912 the Park’s bison were again thriving but were no longer the pure stock native to the region.

Elk protected from all hunting in the Park and control of mountain lions and coyotes increased dramatically in number and in 1907 the estimate was 30,000 - 40,000 which eventually led to problems of overabundance of elk beyond the capacity of the winter ranges. Control of coyotes led to the proliferation of rodents resulting in the deterioration of grass cover essential to the ungulates. Because of the deteriorating winter range, elk, bighorn sheep, pronghorn and mule deer were fed during the winter. This solution was ineffective and the situation reached a crisis in the winter of 1919-20 when more than half of the elk population died of malnutrition. This led to direct control from 1934 to 1968 when rangers shot nearly 9000 elk within the Park. Legal hunting outside the Park accounted for nearly 41,000 kills and another 6000 elk were trapped and shipped off to public zoos and to replenish or start wild herds. While elk populations were exploding, white-tailed deer, the widely distributed and highly adaptable ungulate in most other parts of lower 48 states disappeared from Yellowstone probably by 1924. The main reason was the willow-bottom habitat, a vital habitat for the deer, also the summer foraging ground for the moose, was largely eliminated by the burgeoning elk numbers combined with road and facilities construction. The destruction of that same habitat led to a drastic decline in beaver numbers. Research involving vegetation exclosures, which excluded elk and other ungulates, clearly demonstrated the severity of over-browsing by elk on the winter range.

Not until the U.S. Army began administering Yellowstone in 1886 were bears given protection. Later when the predator control was reinstated in early 1900 bears were not killed, as they had become major tourists attractions. With the rapid growth of tourism and development of service facilities, there was a new problem in the pristine wilderness: dumpsites. The black bear which was much more common than the grizzly, readily adjusted to humans and began to frequent roads, campgrounds and garbage dumps in the Park even as early as 1880. The grizzly also learned to visit dumps but unlike the black bear never associated closely with man. Because of their begging proclivities black bears became one of the major tourist attractions of Yellowstone and therefore were protected. The tourist camps and hotels in and around the Park provided food, which the black bears soon learned to use and tourists often offered food to those that had learned to ‘beg’. This eventually led to injuries to humans and bears (both the species) in search of food damaged properties such as cars, tents and cottages. Between 1931 and 1965 bears caused injuries to 1676 humans and there were 4347 cases of damage to property. This led to elimination of problem bears and for the above period 859 black bear and 97 grizzly were shot and 144 black bear died in accidents such as collision with motor vehicles. Numerous problem bears, both grizzly and black, were also shipped to zoos. During the above 35 years, 32, 815 280 visitors had come to the Park.

When bear-human conflicts became too frequent even by 1930 the Park Service had closed all but the Otter Creek dump near the Canyon Hotel. This dump was equipped with bleachers, a chain link fence and a large concrete platform where the garbage was dumped and where the bears could feed. It was often difficult to find a parking space in the specially built lot as tourists gathered to watch as many as 50 bears feeding on the garbage. Despite its popularity with visitors administrators believed the dangers were too great to continue operating the public feeding ground and even the Otter Creek dump was closed to public in 1942.

Although the open pit dumps were closed to public viewing bears, especially grizzlies, continued to use them. The dumps, by then, had been well established and were predictable as eco-centers for bear aggregations. Indeed, official estimates of grizzly bear populations had been based for several decades on counts taken at disposal sites and the rough estimates indicated that the Yellowstone grizzly bear population increased from around 40 bears in 1920 to perhaps as many as 260 by 1933. This increase is primarily to the growing availability of garbage as a source for food possibly attracting bears from all parts of the Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Research on large mammals started even as early as 1937 when Adolf Murie began his classic study on the ecology of coyotes in Yellowstone National Park. Adolf did not recommend predator control so he and his work were totally neglected. Olaus Murie, brother of Adolf Murie, even in 1944, prepared a report recommending that the open pit garbage dumps be closed to wean bears of their unnatural feeding habitats. But in depth research in grizzly bear ecology started only in late 1950s by John and Frank Craighead.

The most important food resources as expressed by bear dietary intake indices were garbage, whitebark pine seeds, vertebrates (ungulates and rodents), grasses and sedges, berries, forbs (as a group) and invertebrates. There was no evidence of grizzly feeding on fish. Mean litter for the period 1959-70, before the dumps were closed was 2.29 cubs per litter and this was significantly larger than the mean of 1.91 for the post closure period, 1973 through 1981. Litters were produced at a mean interval of 3.40 years. Annually an average of at least 8-12% of the entire grizzly bear population died as a direct result of human activity and this represented a removal equal to approximately one-half of the population increment each year. It is a well-established fact that the grizzlies thrived well in places where there was additional food in the form of salmon aggregations or beached whales or communal mass harvesting of bison, which the Craighead brothers call ‘ecocenters’. Therefore, they have recommended creation and protection of ecocenters such as grain spills, bone yards, insect and fish aggregations as an effective management tool for reducing the size of areas required for population persistence and for minimizing bear-human conflict.

When Lewis and Clark went on their expedition there were at least 100,000 grizzlies roaming from Mexico to the Arctic Ocean and from the Pacific eastward across the Great Plains. Grizzly bears were probably more abundant in California than any other state with about 10,000 bears. Grizzly bears fed on salmon in California rivers, on beached whales along the Coast and abundant mast crops of California oaks. Grizzly bears were so much a part of the culture of California that the big bear was placed on the State flag, the only State to do so. Unfortunately for the grizzly, on the footsteps of Lewis and Clark, there were explorers and fur trappers who were followed by homesteaders accompanied by domestic livestock and developers leading to mining towns.

The encroaching Caucasians led to the demise of North American bison the food for native North Americans and the grizzly. Within the short period of a century, the great bear, the symbol of American wilderness and feared and respected by the native Americans, the wolves and the lions lost their ground to the relentless march of civilization. The last wild grizzly bear in California was killed in 1922 leaving the only grizzly bear remaining in California the symbolic bear on the State flag. Hunting and killing of bears for protection of livestock continued into the 1970s. Of the 37 populations present in 1922, 31 became extinct by 1975. By 1975 grizzlies had been reduced to 700-800 in less than 2% of the former range and were listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act of the Federal Government. Now the killing of grizzly bear in the lower 48 states is prohibited except in self defense or defense of others.

Long term conservation of grizzlies in Yellowstone recovery zone leading to further increase in the population is also beset with numerous problems related to its habitat and food availability. The noose around the grizzly’s habitat, in the form of clear cutting and highways, summer homes in the grizzly habitats and oil and gas development, tighten year after year. As Chris Servheen, grizzly bear recovery coordinator for Fish and Wildlife Service, aptly puts it every one wants something out of grizzly habitat. As the Sierra Club Grizzly Bear Ecosystems Project rightly concludes, the economic well being of the oil and gas, timber and home building industries need not depend on the Yellowstone area as there are other areas for these economic activities, which are vital to the well being of people. But the Yellowstone area is one of the very few viable habitats left for the grizzlies in the lower 48 states. As long as the habitat is threatened, the grizzly remains a threatened species with an uncertain future.

Studies have shown that there are more grizzly bear –human conflicts and human caused grizzly bear mortalities in years of grizzly bear food shortages. High-energy, high-fat food sources are critical to grizzly bear survival. Adequate accumulation of fat reserves is not only necessary for grizzlies to survive hibernation but is a pre-requisite for successful reproduction in female grizzlies.

When food shortages occur grizzlies forage over larger areas in search of alternatives, which usually brings them into locations with greater human activity. In the Yellowstone Ecosystem this has historically resulted in more human-caused grizzly bear deaths. More than 80% of the recorded grizzly bear mortalities (n=641, between 1959 and1998) in the Yellowstone Ecosystem are human caused. Clearly, ensuring that adequate and diverse amounts of high quality foods persist in the Yellowstone Ecosystem is central to minimizing grizzly bear mortality and enhancing successful grizzly bear reproduction.

One study has found that grizzly bears ranging over 30-45% of the Yellowstone Ecosystem feed upon Yellowstone cutthroat trout with female bears accounting for a disproportionately large part of this percentage. Unfortunately in 1994 lake trout were discovered illegally introduced into Yellowstone Lake; the lake trout consumes Yellowstone cutthroat trout among other species. The crux of the problem for bears is the difference in spawning habits between cutthroat and lake trout. Cutthroat trout spawn in 63 Yellowstone Lake tributaries where they are easily available to grizzly bears. In contrast Lake trout spawn in the deep waters of Yellowstone where they are unavailable to grizzlies. Unless the lake trout is controlled, Yellowstone cutthroat trout population will decline perhaps as much as 80% within the century. Further threat to the cutthroat trout is the whirling disease recently been discovered in Yellowstone Lake. This disease will likely exacerbate the problems facing cutthroat survival and further reduce trout numbers and their availability to bears. Now the Park Management has announced an award of US $ 10,000 to identify the culprit who has done the heinous crime of introducing the lake trout.

Whitepark pine seeds (Pinus albicaulis) provide another highly concentrated food source for Yellowstone grizzlies. Seeds are available in the late summer and fall a critical period when grizzly bears accumulate pre-hibernation fat. In good whitebark pine seed production years, grizzlies consume the seeds in large quantities confining themselves to the remote sites where these trees grow. In poor seed production years, bears are forced to feed at lower elevations where they are more likely to encounter humans. Now the whitebark pine is subjected to mortality due to introduced white-pine blister rust (Cronortium ribicola) and the current total mortality rate in the Yellowstone Ecosystem is estimated at 7% and infection rate at 5%. Infection is spreading throughout the Whitebark pine’s range and mortality rate is likely to increase.

The army cutworm moth (Euxoa auxiliaris) represents another important high elevation, high quality food source rich in fat for Yellowstone grizzly bears. While 14 army cutworm moth sites were observed in Yellowstone Ecosystem in 1997, this number fluctuates widely, primarily, researchers believe, as a function of local climatic changes. In 1991 nearly 200 bears and bear family units were seen feeding at Yellowstone Ecosystem moth sites; in 1993 an unusually cold, wet year – this number had plummeted to less than 10. As with whitebark pine the high mountain slopes where grizzly bears find army cutworm moth aggregation sites keep grizzly bears from areas where they are more likely to come into conflict with humans.

Experts believe that the availability of ungulate meat is an important factor in the survival of Yellowstone’s grizzly bear population. The Yellowstone Ecosystem supports one of the highest native ungulate densities in North America. Bison carcasses are less numerous than those of elk but they attract more bears per carcass and there is a report of 23 bears feeding on one carcass. Population numbers of elk and bison have increased dramatically since the end of Yellowstone Park’s ungulate herd reduction programmes in 1968. This increase has paralleled a decrease in age of first reproduction and litter interval as well as an increase in litter size and cub and subadult survival of Yellowstone grizzly bears. Ungulate consumption by Yellowstone’s grizzlies is higher in poor whitebark pine seed years leading experts to believe that ungulate use by Yellowstone grizzly bears may compensate for a reduction in whitebark pine seeds.

Unfortunately all current Yellowstone bison management alternatives will reduce the availability of this important grizzly bear food resource. Yellowstone bison are infected with brucellosis, an infectious disease that can be transmitted to cattle. The State of Montana, where raising of brucellosis-free beef cattle contributes significantly to the economy, is worried that an increase in bison population and its ranging into Montana can affect their brucellosis-free status. There is hardly any data on the transmission of brucellosis to livestock yet Montana officials insist on culling bison that leave the Park. Yellowstone Park scientists and others maintain reduction of overall bison numbers would set back grizzly recovery by reducing availability of winter-killed carrion in the early spring, a particularly thin time for the large terrestrial predator. In the years to come, more ungulate biomass will be needed to support the grizzlies and the wolves, reintroduced in 1994, whose present population of 40 or so will increase in the coming decades.

There are allegations from NGOs like Auduborn Society that the Federal Government under political pressure from the oil and gas industry, developers and the State of Wyoming is pursuing a plan to prematurely delist the bear. Delisting could lead to legal hunting of the bear. Once the grizzly bear is delisted its management falls under the legal authority of the states. Both the states of Wyoming and Montana, in their long term planning, have identified hunting as a possible option. Such a move would only be considered under the pretense that the grizzly population has recovered sufficient enough to allow for harvest. Most experts very strongly argue that the population is far from the point of delisting. Grizzly bear experts like Charles C. Schwartz, of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, opine that delisting will not occur just by political pressure.

The genetic studies indicate that to ensure no short-term loss of genetic diversity, there is a need for an effective population size, which for the Yellowstone population is around 100 animals equating to a total population size of about 500. Even this small population can sustain hunting provided mortality, including hunting and deaths due to accidents, is in balance with recruitment. Otherwise the population will decline. Monitoring this will be the most challenging task to the managers should the population ever be delisted. In such a situation, to permit hunting, it will be desirable to enlarge the recovery zone with corridors to the required size, ensure high density of ungulate prey throughout the recovery zone and enable the population to grow to 2000-2500 animals.