Griz still walking around....

[xtreme]

Island Park in winter is one bueatiful place. Some friends and I use to met in West Yellowstone every winter and snowmobile outside the park, I have gone on an unguided trip inside the park. I had heard through the enviros that the gate attendants were dying of two stroke smoke so I had to see for myself, no such problems occured. Speed limits inside the park were 35mph. Enviros said the sleds scared the animals so bad they wouldnot breed. A bull buffalo is not affraid of anything, another enviro lie.
There was a resturant in the woods south of West Yellowstone run by an elderly man who was also a sheep raiser. He had a goood pasture except for griz. He killed two griz and after the second one the park rangers made him move his sheep to a dry pasture.
I helped support the Blue Ribbon Coalition for years as they struggled with the enviros and courts. It is always the same, faus science, and back to court every year.

[xtreme]

Last I heard the park rangers were still on two stroke snowmobiles while I have to use a 4 stroke BAT best available tech and even though attendance is way down, no park rangers lost their jobs.

[*******]

All my life I have seen grizz up and moving all winter. The key to remember is that a grizz does not go into a true 'hibernation' from a biologist standpoint. They slow down there metabolism and they don't move, but it isn't the kind of hibernation most people think of. I have seen grizz up in 15 feet of snow at 9000ft in the middle of January at -40F. Most commonly they are just up stretching their legs and looking for a snack.
My favourite encounter with a winter bear was when I was travelling my helicopter doing looking for wintering caribou. We saw a big boar wandering around just bellow tree line and watched him for a bit. He sniffed around some stumps for a while and started digging. Once he was way down we saw him reach his head down into a hole and shake around a little bit. Then he pulled a full grown black bear up onto the snow and started gnawing into it. The grizz must have snapped its neck right in its den and pulled it out. Later that day the grizz wandered back into its own den. The grizz was big and healthy looking. I figure he was just bored and wanted a snack.

[Bitterroot Bulls]

All my life I have seen grizz up and moving all winter. The key to remember is that a grizz does not go into a true 'hibernation' from a biologist standpoint. They slow down there metabolism and they don't move, but it isn't the kind of hibernation most people think of. I have seen grizz up in 15 feet of snow at 9000ft in the middle of January at -40F. Most commonly they are just up stretching their legs and looking for a snack.
My favourite encounter with a winter bear was when I was travelling my helicopter doing looking for wintering caribou. We saw a big boar wandering around just bellow tree line and watched him for a bit. He sniffed around some stumps for a while and started digging. Once he was way down we saw him reach his head down into a hole and shake around a little bit. Then he pulled a full grown black bear up onto the snow and started gnawing into it. The grizz must have snapped its neck right in its den and pulled it out. Later that day the grizz wandered back into its own den. The grizz was big and healthy looking. I figure he was just bored and wanted a snack.

Awesome story.

[HuntWYODon]

Yeah, noise pollution when there are no tourists in the park ... You are so right. Last time I was in the Park driving through to the east gate to get to Cody in Nov. 2002 I saw a wolf just trotting down the road going the other way. Could of cared less about me. It was almost all white. Drove for almost 2 hrs. to get through the Park. Lots of snow and ice. Was the last day before the closed it that Sun.. Never saw another person or vehicle for 180 mi. or whatever it is. Only buffalo ! It was a one track road through the snow going up out and a whole herd was coming down the road. They split on both side of my truck. The right side was a long way down. They were brushing up against my truck on both sides ! Scarey sh*t ! I know what you mean packin out elk. A few yrs. ago packing out an elk I saw 4 different grizzlies going up and 5 different ones going down the other side.