Tracking the Great Bear
From Dubois, Wyoming, to Jasper, Alberta.
By: Candy Moulton 03/01/2007
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark wrote often of encounters with Ursus horribilis—grizzly bears—as they made their pioneering journey across the Louisiana Purchase during 1804-1806. Mountain Man Hugh Glass had a near-deadly confrontation on the plains of South Dakota, while other explorers and Indians also faced the ferocious bears, far from where we think of them as living today.
Although in the 19th century, grizzly bears roamed far out onto the plains, the last remaining wild habitat of the grizzly is on the backbone of the continent along the Rocky Mountains from Yellowstone National Park in northwest Wyoming to Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada. It is a region that includes five major parks: Yellowstone and Glacier in the United States, Waterton International Peace Park, Banff and Jasper in Canada, along with many significant historic sites.
Traditionally the land was the territory of the timber wolf and the grizzly, as well as the Sheepeater, Crow, Blackfeet and Salish-Kootenai Indians in the United States, and the Blood and Piegan tribes in Canada.
I have seen grizzly bears in the wild only in the Yellowstone area, and then, fortunately, at distances that were safe both for the bears and for me. One viewing occurred east of Mammoth in the Gardner’s Hole area of the park. I was involved in a “Lodging and Learning” program, co-sponsored by Xanterra Parks & Resorts and the Yellowstone Association. We had taken a van to the area in early evening, hoping to see wolves. Instead we saw a grizzly, busily chewing on something dead, possibly an elk; it was impossible from our vantage point to see the carcass even though we had powerful spotting scopes.
The most amazing part of that wildlife watching experience occurred when three large bull buffalo lumbered through the crowd that had gathered beside the road. The bulls never shifted their pace as they approached the grizzly’s location. One of the Yellowstone Institute biologists told me the buffalo would veer off when they actually spotted the bear; the bear being the dominant creature in Yellowstone. The bulls’ massive heads swung routinely from side to side as the bison marched ever closer to the grizzly, who finally paused in chewing on the carcass, threw up her nose and then turned tail and ran, very quickly, away. She first headed straight for our position—and the naturalists told everyone to climb in vehicles to avoid any bear-human contact—but when she was still a few hundred yards away, she veered up a hillside where she disappeared into the timber.
The bear’s reaction wasn’t what the biologist expected. He told our group that he believed a buffalo must have once closely confronted her, making her cautious on the approach of these three big bulls.
We later drove back toward Mammoth and came upon another “bear jam” on the highway, where we got an incredible view of the same bear. She had moved into the forest then out onto a hillside where she was stretched out with her head and paws on a rock. A man who arrived there before us had his spotting scope set up, and he invited everyone to take a look through it.
Because she was above us on a cliff-like hillside, she was closer than our earlier view, but we were no threat to the sow, and we felt none from her. The powerful scope drew her in, so the view was just of her massive head. She seemed to be looking right at me when I had my turn at the scope; I could even see individual hairs on her face.
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