The Historic Grizzly

[brotherbear]

Grizzlies and Grizzled Old Men continued...
During these early years the Craighead brothers could best be described as whirling dervishes - constantly on the move as they grunted and hoisted sedated grizzly bears onto scales or stalked close enough to put a tranquilizing dart into a bear's butt. ( During the twelve-year study period, 389 grizzlies were tagged and studied. ) They also followed ear-tagged bears for miles into the wilderness, gathering information about their reproductive, feeding, denning, and mortality cycles. This early period was a time of cordial relations and cooperation between the researchers and park rangers, and the Craigheads often assisted rangers in live-trapping problem bears. 
Data began to accumulate, and though the Craigheads were far too professional to begin drawing conclusions from a few seasons' findings, certain tendencies were already becoming apparent: A lot of young bears were dying inside the park, and a lot of big bears were dying outside of it. As a result the Craigheads felt impaled to study intensely the reproductive-versus-mortality dynamics of Yellowstone's grizzlies. And a lot of it was at close range. Reply