The Historic Grizzly

[brotherbear]

Yellowstone Park in 1959 had all the trappings of a modern park, with up-to-date facilities and multiple paved roads to handle the millions of tourists visiting annually. However, its bear management was still primitive. Essentially, park rangers dealt with black and grizzly bears only when they had a problem with them. If a bear attacked someone or if it began breaking into facilities or became a pest or a danger to a campground, it was either relocated , shipped off to a zoo, or killed. The park had no idea how many grizzlies it had and had not even attempted a count in the nine years prior to the Craighead's arrival. 

The Craigheads began a vigorous program of live-trapping grizzlies, using either culvert-traps or a CO2-powered dart gun to sedate free-roaming animals. After a grizzly was immobilized ( conscious, but unable to move ), it was weighed and measured. A blood sample was drawn, and a tooth extracted to discern its age. Colored ear tags were fastened to females, and males received aluminum ear tags. Females with young were especially attractive to the researchers as they tackled the monumental task of gathering reproductive data. Reply