An ecotour company guide in Yellowstone National Park discovered the nearly undisturbed carcass of an adult male grizzly bear last week while hiking off-trail.
Since the bear had been wearing a GPS collar, the extraordinary find helped reveal a wealth of information about an animal that probably died as the result of a “bear argument” with another male grizzly.
Yellowstone Insight reported Friday via Facebook that naturalist/guide Doug MacCartney found the carcass May 23 and contacted park bear biologists Kerry Gunther and Travis Wyman. (The Facebook images are graphic.)
The bear was identified as #1052M, whose signal had ceased delivering movement data in the same area on May 13.
MacNeil Lyons, owner of Yellowstone Insight, wrote the accompanying Facebook post after receiving input from Wyman.
The bear was a 10-year-old male. Collar data revealed that he inhabited the Mirror Plateau region, far from established trails, and denned this past winter near Wrong Creek.
This spring he roamed near Lamar Valley. On April 30, a research flight crew observed him digging for likely gopher caches at the base of Amethyst Creek.
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The bear was found to have sustained severe head wounds and puncture marks to his skull, probably caused by another male bear.
“As this bear argument occurred in mid-May, between two mature males, we might assume that it was likely over a female as bears are in the midst of their breeding season,” Lyons stated on Facebook. “It is a good guess that was the reason for the outcome.”
Biologists collected the bear’s head for science and removed its claws, according to Lyons, to “de-value” the remains.
MacCartney’s discovery shows that you never know what you might stumble upon while exploring the wilder regions of Yellowstone National Park.
Lyons wrote: “It was great to hear his story, as we knew of his life, through the Bear Management Team here in Yellowstone National Park. We can only imagine what he saw over the 10 years in the backcountry of this amazing, protected and wild place.
“His ending was tragic and brutal, but such is nature… It is a hard life out in the wild and I am not sure about you, but I feel more in touch with the wildness of this place by knowing stories just like this one.”
–Top image is generic, courtesy of the National Park Service
