Pine Nuts Keeping Grizzlies Out Of Trouble

Pine Nuts Keeping Grizzlies Out Of Trouble

by Kimberly Coleman

Yellowstone grizzly bears will have their fill of pine nuts this fall. The increase in white bark pine tree production throughout Yellowstone reduces the need for the grizzlies to seek food in more populated areas and risk being shot by farmers protecting cattle.

Six grizzlies have been killed by humans this year alone. Wildlife officials have also captured nine grizzlies. Of those nine, two bears were killed. The remaining bears were relocated.

This year also saw the numbers of females and cubs decline from a record high in 2002 of fifty-two to a mere thirty-two.

The white bark pine tree is a conifer capable of living over seven hundred years. Yellowstone has the highest concentration of white bark pine trees in the lower forty-eight states.

The benefit of the white bark pine tree to the recovery efforts of the grizzly in Yellowstone’s ecosystem has been largely overlooked. The grizzlies are able to quickly accumulate their fat reserves by eating the nuts from these trees.

"Bears make nearly exclusive fall use of white bark pine seed as food during years in which mean cone production exceeds 20 cones per tree," comments Mark Haroldson, biologist.

The grizzlies, unable to climb the trees, depend on squirrels to harvest the cones and bury them under the pine tree stands. During autumn the grizzlies seek out the tree stands and with their long claws, unearth the cones buried by squirrels.

The white bark trees typically grow only in high altitude ecosystems where the growing season is short and the climate is typically harsh.

The pine trees, not considered commercially valuable to loggers, were able to grow in large numbers throughout Montana and other areas of Yellowstone.

© 2003 Animal News Center, Inc.