This week, the number of grizzly bears that have been killed in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem reached 65.
That trails only 2018, a conflict-filled year that ended with 69 mortalities for the large carnivores, which remain federally protected by the Endangered Species Act after decades of population growth and range expansion. Two years ago, 54 grizzly deaths were logged. The 2023 toll was 47, according to WyoFile.
But experts are not sounding the alarm that the bear population is in danger of rapidly declining.
The first mortality investigation occurred last spring in Idaho, but by the first week of September, the description appeared with increasing regularity in the database federal biologists use to track grizzly bear deaths in the Yellowstone region.
By mid-October, the words “UNDER INVESTIGATION” had been entered 16 times, nine of them in relation to dead Wyoming grizzly bears. On average, hunter gunfire ends the lives of 10 grizzlies a year in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
The recent spate of “under-investigation” deaths that have already been logged with weeks to go before grizzlies den up for the winter is one sign that 2024 is shaping up to be an exceptionally deadly year for grizzly bears in the Yellowstone ecosystem, potentially even the deadliest to date, which is concerning, but not panic-inducing, according to experts.
“We’re not necessarily shooting for the record,” Dan Thompson, who leads large carnivore management for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, tells WyoFile.
While there’s no one reason for the higher-than-usual death toll for Ursus arctos horribilis, the leading cause this calendar year has been depredation on livestock — an often unshakable habit that becomes a death sentence for bears.
“Livestock-related removals basically doubles the average from over that decade [2014-23],” Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team leader Frank van Manen said. “It’s about 14 a year, and currently we’re at 28.”
Killing grizzly bears to stem livestock conflict in Wyoming started up on private land in April far outside of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem near the Bighorns. It didn’t let up until Oct. 3, when an adult male met his end south of Cody.
