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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Environment
Christine Peterson in Laramie, Wyoming

‘Like butter for bears’: the grizzlies who dine on 40,000 moths a day

grizzly bear - zoomed in on face
Grizzly bears can get a third of the calories they need for hibernation from the moths, an expert says. Photograph: Design Pics Inc/Alamy

The barren mountain slopes of north-west Wyoming might seem like inhospitable territory for a hungry grizzly bear. Big game animals are few and far between, and blueberries don’t grow from these rocky hillsides, high above the treeline.

But for a couple of months each summer, this stark landscape becomes a high-calorie buffet for hundreds of grizzly bears in the Rocky Mountain west. And it’s all thanks to a small, unassuming insect whose relationship with the grizzly is as essential as it is unexpected.

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