“Are people more important than the grizzly bear? Only from the point of view of some people.”
Edward Abbey
“I am still passionate about Grizzly bears as well as the rest of the animal kingdom and I understand now how precious people are that stand for all of the animal kingdom.”
Timothy Treadwell
When Lewis and Clark “discovered” the American West in the early 19th century there were rumors that mammoths still roamed the outback. There was a mystique of the land generated by a wilderness that no white men had ever seen. Fear, and awe, glistened off the fur of one of the most formidable predators on earth. The fauna in those days was commensurate with the utter respect the continent’s first nations had for the grizzly. The native tribes saw the grizzly as a grandfather, an unmatched power as close to a deity as a creature can get.
There were perhaps as many as 100,000 of them marauding the wilds as the supreme carnivore of North America. Today they number less than 1,000 in the lower 48 states. By contrast, Alaska alone allows 1,000 legal hunts every year for trophies, where as many as 13,000 still roam, some say twice that number. But after all that the world’s wildlife has been through in recent years, where more than 60 percent of the world’s animal populations have vanished, how can we even begin to entertain the murder of our premier predator for $15,000?
Once upon a time there were cave bears and giant short-faced bears that weighed up to 2,000 pounds, with long legs, dwarfing anything on Earth today, the largest bear that ever lived. Bears were revered in Paleolithic France and Spain and as far away as the Ainu of Japan in their lomante ritual. The Mansi of Central Asia called the bear the “Master of the Forest.” Bears are still honored by many north Eurasian peoples such as the Sami and Finns in pre-Christian pagan ceremonies. In Moldova, the bear dance symbolized the purification and fertility of the soil for the coming year. The stories of bears intermarrying and breeding with humans from the Modoc of California, to the Finnish epic Kalevala, to the Yupiks of Siberia is proof of the unique influence bears have had on the imagination and cosmology of peoples of the northern hemisphere, arguably more than any other kind of animal. Among the Finno Ugrian tribes the bear was considered half human. Indeed, if one has encountered a bear rearing on its hind legs, its bipedality is awe inspiring. The Vikings esteemed the bear so much that its skin and its spirit were worn in battle for protection. Berserkers they were called, ber — bear — and serkr — shirt. At critical moments in battle, some believed they could turn themselves into bears. We owe the bears of the world an enormous debt.
As agriculture started taking over the world, man’s mystical ties to these beings started to diminish. Even the ancient Greeks considered bears sacred beings, but the Romans persecuted them relentlessly for entertainment. Europeans and Americans in the last few centuries have disposed of entire populations. That has been our legacy to wildlife. The Church, with its short-sighted ideas of humanity having dominion over life, went a long way to desacralize animals of all kinds. What will remain of these formidable beings in 50 years’ time will mark our legacy to the planet.
Photo credit: Cyril Christo
The prehistoric bears are gone but luckily, we still have the fantastic presence of the grizzly to be thankful for, the monarch of North America until you get to the Arctic where their cousins, the polar bear reigns supreme. It was only in 1975 that the grizzly was put on the Endangered Species list, which certain political persuasions and special interests would like to undo, all for the sake of mining, oil, ranching and trophy hunters. To come close but not too near these great giants is by far the greatest encounter one can have in America. Everything else, except for the majestic sweep of America’s now dwindling wilds, is Disneyland.
We were on our way to Brooks Falls in southwest Alaska where grizzlies look for salmon in those famous cascades now synonymous with grizzlies. We had been walking for a few hundred yards on a path through the forest when we encountered five cubs only about 30 feet from us. They hadn’t seen us. And on the other side of the forest their mother came ambling along looking for her babies. We immediately put distance between ourselves and the cubs and started walking away, as the mother caught up with her youngsters. There had been no sign of aggression. We posed no threat to her family and in the midst of summer fishing season, her cubs were thankfully all the mother had on her mind.
There are about 700 grizzles in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Between 1985 and 2010 there were no human fatalities, but as human population and ranching has expanded, hunters, even Fish and Game in Montana, have seized on opportunities to shoot grizzlies in deference to the livestock industry. The grizzly is being scapegoated much as the wolf has been for generations. Grizzly impacts on cows are few and far between and inconsequential to the future of cows. The bloodlust that decimated the grizzles in the 19th century still inhabits fringe groups as well as those who see the bears as vermin and not the sacred being it is considered among Native Americans.
There are six “islands” of recovering grizzly bear populations in the lower 48 states. Bears such as the pandas, sun bears, and Mexican grizzlies, Tibetan brown bears and Asiatic black bears are on Appendix 1, maximum protection listing. The grizzly is not, but given climate change between the Rockies and its northern range, how long will they hold out?
Recently in January on Hanson island in the Broughton Archipelago in British Columbia a grizzly called Gatu came too close to human habitation. Usually it would have looked for clams and mussels, but this bear had become habituated to human garbage. Supposedly, conservation officials were literally dead set on killing the bear. The indigenous people there protested and at first their plea “fell on deaf ears,” says Mike Willie, a wildlife guide and hereditary chief for the Kwikwasut’ inuxw Nation. The bear was killed. A few weeks later when another grizzly arrived, Willie spoke on behalf of his people, saying his people did not want to have the bear killed. Eventually, he managed to convince conservation officers to relocate the bear. A great victory for the grizzly, British Columbia, and the dialogue between conservation and First Nations. It should stand as an exemplar for what is possible.
Russia and America have carved up and decimated grizzly populations for the last several hundred years. What annihilation the Russians visited upon the first peoples in Siberia they also did to its brown bear population as well as the bears in Alaska in the 19th century. American hunters continue to take out these generally gentle giants, who seldom attack unless they feel threatened. Bear gallbladders are still sought in the Asian market. Trophy hunters continue to shoot them for sport even if they pose no danger. And as Stephen Capra underscores, the utter barbarity of black bear baiting is still allowed in such states as Idaho. Cohabitation as in the Bella Coola Valley in British Columbia is something that has to be learned and respected. If we lost the grizzly bear and other bear species, we would not only lose a number of other species and habitat along the way, but a major part of America’s story.
By 1975 so many grizzlies had been shot for going near garbage dumps, that they were listed as threatened. Then only 130 or so grizzles roamed Yellowstone. They were delisted in 2017 and then in September 2018, thankfully, a federal judge restored protection for grizzlies within the greater Yellowstone Ecosystem under the Endangered Species Act. Their loss would be a crisis for the entire ecology of North America and those of us still civil enough to salvage bears for their own sake. Grizzlies are not protected in Alaska, and the rules there need to change. In the lower 48 it is illegal to shoot grizzly, but cases of so-called mistaken identity with black bears — which are allowed to be shot — occur not infrequently. As of October 2019, 44 grizzlies were killed in the Yellowstone ecosystem, far too many for comfort, by some count about eight by feeding off the grain that falls off grain trains, the others died at the hand and gun of man. The question also remains, why are black bears still allowed to be shot in the 21st century? What depraved mindset finds comfort in torturing our greatest beings?
Photo credit: Cyril Christo
The low reproductive rate of grizzlies does not help their cause. The needless targeting of these ineffable beings for fun must come to an end. The gun-toting, trigger happy slaughterers of the wild who use any opportunity given them to put a bullet in a grizzly’s brain will seem very outdated and grizzly indeed. One day it will be considered murder. We can only hope these lords of the North American wild will still be roaming the last of the frontier. Fish and Game needs to side with the bears and not the livestock industry. Pollution, bear farms in Asia and poaching still pose a major threat to bears all over the world. Grizzlies here in America will also be impacted by global warming, especially since Glacier National Park will one day become Glacierless National Park. We need a greater reverence for each and every “grandfather” of the forest we encounter while they roam the backcountry of what is left of this continent. Over 90 percent of British Columbians oppose trophy hunting. Removing grizzly bear protection in the greater Yellowstone area is opposed by almost all Americans. The gun toting, blood lust of ranchers and trophy hunters does not help conservation.
The present administration is indeed trying to rollback 50 years of environmental and endangered species progress. It is a calamity. It is turning what is left of the wilderness into a theme park. Without grizzlies, without bears, without mountain lions and bobcats and caribou and bald eagles and wolverines and other wildlife our place in what remains of North America will devolve to mayhem. Edward Abbey said our society would become a “high tech slum.” The administration’s notions of opening up the nation’s parks to hunting bears, bobcats, and mountain lions is barbarity written in the blood of special interest groups. Wildlife cannot be sacrificed to the whims of the few. Science and the law are standing up to protect wildlife and grizzlies. It is time America did the same. Without them life will quite literally become unbearable.
“God bless America. Let’s save some of it.”
Edward Abbey
Learn more about Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson’s work at their website.
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