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Bear Ecology
Yellowstone's Grizzly Bear Foods
We thought we would share something novel in the realm of educational efforts focused on grizzly bear natural history. Having grown up with collector cards featuring different sports heroes, it struck us that something similar might serve a purpose among those interested in learning more about the foods of Yellowstone’s grizzly bears. The result was a collection of “cards”, or at least pages of a pdf document that could be printed as cards, with each featuring information about a different bear food.
This document, which can be downloaded clicking on this text or the image above, progresses through the bears’ seasonal foods, beginning with animals such as elk and bison scavenged by grizzly bear shortly after they emerge from dens in the spring, and ending with foods such as whitebark pine seeds, moose, and pondweed (yes, pondweed!) that grizzlies use to back on pounds before heading into their dens. In between are foods such as biscuitroot, grass, clover, dandelions, elk thistle, voles, pocket gophers, yampa, ants, and hornets.
Hopefully this collectable albeit very succinct summary of information about Yellowstone’s bear foods inspires all of you to dig deeper to learn more about the complex and fun natural history of grizzly bears!