There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
10-14-2018, 01:33 PM( This post was last modified: 10-14-2018, 01:33 PM by brotherbear )
TRUE GRIZZ by Douglas H. Chadwick.
The North Fork is a National Wild & Scenic River, and the valley that holds it is long, heavily forested, and remote. Just across the border in southeasternmost British Columbia, the upper North Fork appears to hold the thickest concentration of grizzlies yet recorded in Canada's interior. The U.S. side may harbor more grizz per square mile than anyplace else in the Lower 48.
Population density figures for this species vary dramatically from one range to the next. To me, this reinforces the notion that there is no such thing as a standard grizzly, for whenever you generalize about the animal's favorite kind of country or how often they encounter each other, you are bound to be way off for many a bear. Some tundra stretches of Alaska's North Slope and the Canadian Arctic support just one grizzly for every several hundred square miles. Yet along coastal terrain veined with streams that host a succession of salmon runs through summer and fall, biologists have recorded an average of between one and two grizzlies for each square mile. This is why even though it is still true that the great majority of occupied grizzly range lies in the continent's interior, at least half the grizzlies alive today are within about 100 miles of the Pacific. Hotspots such as Kodiak Island, the Alaska Peninsula, and Admiralty Island in the southeastern part of the forty-ninth state are the big-bear equivalents of New Delhi or teeming Hong Kong.