Grizzlies, wolves cooperating in the wild
More cooperation than conflict between the two carnivores
By RACHEL ODELL
Jackson Hole News
JACKSON, Wyo. - The lion may not be lying down with the lamb, but two major predators of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem are proving to be compatible cooperators, biologists said.

The threatened grizzly bear and the transplanted gray wolf seem to have developed a benign relationship since the wolf reintroduction in 1995, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Biologist Ed Bangs said recently.

"You would think it's a predator-prey relationship," Bangs said. "And potentially either one could hurt the other pretty bad.

"But if you were a wolf and you were going to try to kick somebody's butt it sure as hell wouldn't be a grizzly bear. That's a lot of energy to put out for such little gain."

The two have been observed traveling together, and sometimes even killing together, said grizzly bear biologist Steve French.

"It is true that with the wolves out there making routine kills, some bears in some localities are taking advantage of that," he said. "We've seen an individual bear walk up to a carcass with nine wolves on it and scare them off. But we also saw a sow with two cubs travel with a couple of wolves for about a week, feeding together."

French's observations were made in Yellowstone National Park. When gray wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone, many people wondered what impact the wolves would have on grizzly bears.

"My patent answer is that there is an impact," French said.

That impact may be seen in different feeding habits, and postponement of hibernation for the bear, he said.

Associated Press photo
A female wolf is released into an acclamation pen on the Blacktail Plateau of Yellowstone National Park in this Jan. 23, 1996, file photo. Transplanted Canadian gray wolves and threatened grizzly bears seem to have developed a cooperative, benign relationships since the wolf reintroduction in 1995, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Biologist Ed Bangs said recently. The two have been observed traveling together, and sometimes even killing together.

"Wherever there's a very active wolf pack, some of the bears will learn to take advantage of wolf kills," French said. "My guess is that some bears may actually stay out of their dens a little longer simply because they can take advantage of these wolf kills."

Biologists in Yellowstone have observed wolves following bears and feeding on kills. They have also seen bears chase wolves off a kill. Most of the observations show the two predators accepting each other and sometimes cooperating on kills.

Yellowstone wolf biologist Doug Smith said he saw a grizzly bear bedding down in the Pelican Valley with a group of about 15 wolves.

"They didn't mind that bear in there at all," Smith said. "Even when the bear got up and began walking, the wolves watched it go. There haven't been any real aggressive interactions that I know about."

This behavior is not surprising to biologists who say wolves have lived near grizzly bears throughout the world for thousands of years. Still the observations provide important information for wildlife managers as they prepare for the southern migrations of the two species from Yellowstone into Grand Teton National Park and the surrounding forests.

"The majority of the grizzly bears live outside of the Yellowstone boundaries," French said. "Bears are preceding wolves in the movement south. But the wolves are going to be coming down into their historic habitat soon simply because its good habitat."

Most of the interactions between the predators take place in the Pelican and Lamar Valleys in Yellowstone. French said the behavioral studies are interesting partly because there were expectations that the reintroduction of the wolf would greatly influence the Yellowstone grizzly population.

"These animals coexisted for thousands of years and they figured out the rules of how they get along," he said. "For the most part they kind of go along and do their own things."