Hello, welcome to Yellowstone and thanks for joining us today.
Im Ranger Matt, and I'm in the northern part Yellowstone in
the Mammoth Hot Springs campground. It's a cool day today temperatures are around forty
five (45) degrees Fahrenheit or seven (7) degrees Celsius.
Despite those cool temperatures, spring continues to march on. The grass is
still greening up, the birds you may hear singing are still building asks or taking
care they're young, and the bison are keeping a
watchful eye on those newborn calves. As you can see behind me, the habitat contains
coniferous trees and sage brush and you may catch glimpses of snow-covered mountains
in the back. Now bear in mind, during our program today, if you have any questions or comments
about the topic please put them in the comments on this side of your screen. We would appreciate
it if you share this video with anyone you think might be interested.
Now speaking of spring, there is something I look forward to every year and that is when bears wake
up from hibernation and emerge from their dens some of them being mothers who have given birth to
their cubs over the winter. Which I just find incredible. Fortunately we're
joined by Ranger Nicole today, and she has lots of other incredible information about
the bears in Yellowstone. Ranger Nicole-
Thank you, Ranger Matt! Hello, my name is Ranger Nicole and thank you so
much for taking time out of your day to learn more about the bears of Yellowstone. Now when I
Say bear, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Furry! (Ranger Matt). And that's going to
be different for everybody. For me, it's a memory of when my parents came to visit me
at Yellowstone National Park last spring. It was their
First time in the park, and it happened to be their last day, when we were driving along by Obsidian Cliff
and we saw a mother grizzly bear and her
Cubs. And this is a photo that my mom took on that day. You can see
the cub peeking around the corner. And
I can still remember just how overjoyed and ridiculously excited we all
were because it was all of our first-time seeing a grizzly bear. We
Felt so grateful to be able to share
that experience with each other. Now if you have ever seen a bear in the wild, I'm sure you
also remember just how you felt and exactly where you were. Maybe you were hungry,
tired, excited, scared? Maybe a combination of all of those things?
Well today we're going to be talking about those bears that are ingrained in history and majesty of
Yellowstone National Park and how we can all take a proactive
role in protecting ourselves, other visitors, and our bears
for future generations. Now first things first, what is a bear? Well,
A bear is a mammal. So that means that it has fur like there's a grizzly pelt here. and
This fur is quite coarse and long. It is a nice chestnut brown color.
Mammals also
give live birth, produce milk for young, and they're warm blooded.
Our bears are omnivores. So that means that they can eat both meat
and vegetation. Humans are omnivores as well. So, we have a similar
teeth structure as our bears. If I was to eat a slice of beef jerky-
I would use my canines, or my sharp teeth here, in order to
rip that meat. You can feel your canines by using your tongue.
Feeling that they are a little sharper than your other teeth. And here I have an adult male
grizzly
bear skull. And they also have these sharp canines that they use
when they're eating meat.
Now if I was to eat some vegetables, I would put it back in my mouth and use my
molars in order to grind up that vegetation. You can feel your molars as well.
Kind of flat have some divots. And our grizzly bears are going to feel similar.
Now bears also have an elongated digestive tract and that helps them to further
digest all of those plants. And get as much nutrition out of
those plans as they possibly can. If we were to move up to the skull of our
bear (black bear skull). We would see this pretty big nose. and bears are thought to
be one of the animals in the animal kingdom with the best sense of smell.
And, why do you think that is? Well, it's a two-part answer. The first is going to ne
looking inside the brain of our bear
and looking at the olfactory bulb. That's the part that processes smell. It is
five times larger than a humans.
You can also look insider nasal cavity at this honeycomb structure.
Where you can see a millions of scent receptors.
This allows bears to have seven (7) times greater sense of smell than a bloodhounds
or twenty-one hundred (2,100) times greater than humans. They use
this sense of smell in order to hunt and communicate with each other. Some of
their favorite menu items here at Yellowstone National Park are going to be these ones here: we have
Dandelions,
Trout, winter kill animals like elk or biscon.
Which is this picture here, and white bard pine nuts.
Bears also run pretty quickly. They can run up to thirty five (35) miles per hour.
Live to about fifteen to thirty years old in the wild, and normally are pretty
solitary except for when you see a mother with her cubs.
Now here at Yellowstone National Park, we have two species of bear. We have our black bear.
This species is going to be more commonly seen throughout the country.
I have a map here of their historic and current ranges. So in
pink you can see were black bears used to be found:
All throughout the United States, up into Canada, and Alaska. And
their current range is going to be in that red color. Now based on this map, do you think
You have black bears where you live? If you happen to live in this map covered area.
This blue arrow is also pointed towards Yellowstone.
Our other species of bear is going to be our grizzly bear.
And grizzly bears are definitely going to be more rare to spot
in the United States. They used to be found throughout the west.
In this green color are their historic range.
But today they're only found in the orange spaces here. There's a few spots in the
lower forty-eight (48) and up in Canada and Alaska. And again, that blue arrow is here
at Yellowstone. Both bear species can be found throughout the park, whether you're on the board walk
By Old Faithful or in the deepest part of the back country.
In two thousand eighteen, there was a study done.
In orange, you can see where grizzly bears were mostly found. In the black, you can see where the
black bear were.
These habitats are determined by the annual and seasonal availability of food.
Now because of that broad range,
Yellowstone National Park is a great place to wildlife watch.
And, wait I think I think I see a
bear now! Luckily, I have my binoculars with me!
Well I don't think it's moving, but it does quite
large.
It's just a big rock!
Well, if you're ever lucky enough to see a bear, from a safe distance,
here at Yellowstone National Park, I'm going to show you four ways we can tell
our black bears, or be bears, apart from our grizzlies, or
our g bears. First things first, is going to be that body shape.
Grizzly bears are going to be a
bit taller. Standing three to five feet at their shoulder.
They also have this shoulder
hunt here and that's a really large mass of muscle that helps
to put a lot of pressure on the ground and be a really great at digging.
For out black bears, they are a bit smaller. They stand about two to three feet at the
Shoulder. They do not have that hump, but they do have a pretty big
rump! So their backside here is going to be taller than their shoulder.
Moving to that face shape, our grizzly bears are going to have a dish
shaped profile. That means from their eyes down to their snout is going to
curve in just a tad. And they have this ruff of fur underneath their chin  kind of like a neck beard.
Their ears are going to be smaller and closer to their heard. Where our black bears have really tall and
prominent ears. Their face shape is going to be more of
a straight profile- From that eye down to their snout.
So, again, those ears are going to be just a bit taller.
Moving down to those claws! For a grizzly bears, because of that hump
They are amazing diggers! So their claws need to represent that!
They're a little longer, less curved, and about two-to-four (2-4) inches long.
And, the length of these claws is actually going to be determined by how much that bear digs.
And, I have a grizzly bear claw. Just to see the size in relation to my pinky.
So, this claw is quite smooth and a dark brown. You can see
That it is pretty large in
comparison to my pinky - especially in comparison of my claw right down
here.
Are we have our black bear claw which is going to be more curved. That helps our black
beers be really great at climbing trees. Its a bit shorter, a little under two inches long (2).
And moving from our claws to our paws. I have a black bear paw here. You can see those
claws sticking out of the fur here. Their
toes are a little further apart and more this arch shape. If you
were to draw an imaginary line from
This front toe all the pinky - it would cut across as we can see here.
And, if you were to see the tract of a black bear in the park, you might not be able to see those
claw prints.
But if you're going to see the track of a grizzly bear - which is going to be a lot larger of
a pad - you'll probably see those claw marks.
And, their toes are going to be closer together.
And, they don't really have that arch shape. Do if you were to draw that line
it would not cut through the pinky.
And, I have the skeletal structure of that grizzly bear paw.
Which you can see is a lot bigger than my paw here.
Now, we just learned a whole bunch about bear identification. I feel like you
are experts now! So we're going to play, my favorite game, Guess that Bear! So how this game works  Im going to
hold up a picture of one of the bears here In Yellowstone National Park and you
are going to vote whether you think is a b bear or a g bear. And you could do that, if your feeling extra
super excited, with your hands - you can vote with small grizzly bear
hands or big baker black bear ears.
All right. Are you ready? The suspense is growing. First bear-
If you guessed black bear, then you are correct! You can see those tall
prominent ears, that straight face profile, and they used
those curved claws in order to get up this tree here.
Alright, next, drum roll please! We have this bear -
And, this is going to be our grizzly! So, if you had those tiny grizzly bear ears up the you would
be correct! You can see that muscle mass on their back. And extra
points, do you know what this bear is eating? An extra look
This is going to be one of our winter kill animals and this one's a bison. So, that means when the
animal died in the wintertime, it was covered by snow, kind of like if you were to put meat in the freezer and
over time it defrosted, and it becomes a really easy meal for our bears in the
springtime.
All right, next
Another grizzly!
You can see that it's utilizing its big long claws in order to dig. And last,
maybe the trickiest is this bear here
Use all of those skills of identification to help you along.
Well, if you noticed
Color was not one of those big distinctive things between our black
or grizzly bears. So this is going to be a black bear even though it's more
of that cinnamon color. And you can tell that its a black
bear by at that larger rump in the back and those big prominent ears.
So, black and grizzly bears can range from a black color all the
way to that cinnamon color there.
Another way that you can tell these bears apart is by how they react to conflict. So
our black bears are actually going to be less aggressive and they tend to flee from a threat.
So you can see them running away with their cubs or even running up a tree.
Where grizzly bears are going to use that big size and more aggressive attitude
to scare away a threat. A threat to themselves, their young, or even their
food source. Because of this, we have documented more grizzly bear human
inflict injuries here at the park and these
Injuries started to be documented at the very beginning of the park's opening.
And, that is because Yellowstone was a place where people could see
an interact with bears. Hundreds of people would gather to feed
bears by hand or to watch them feed on garbage.
Now overtime that park realized that this was not one of our
best practice and that is because human food is not great
For a bears digestive system or for their natural diet and if you allow
bears to associate humans with food they can become more aggressive towards
Humans. And will put themselves in danger by being closer to roadways and cars.
So in the nineteen sixties (1960s) the park implemented a bear management program and this focused on
educating the public and prohibiting all feeding of bears.
Since then.
And, all those safety precautions.,
the overwhelming amount of bear encounters do not involve conflict.
And human injuries and property damage have gone down
down from forty eight (48) per year in nineteen thirty one (1931) to only
one per year in the two thousands (2000s) and these recent conflicts were mostly
caused because the bear was surprised. So they were unintentional. So Im going to shear with you
How to high five to bear safety by sharing five (5) ways that we can proactive and to stay safe in bear country. The first one is going to be the rule of thumb.
So all of our animals here at Yellowstone are wild and unpredictable.
You never want to crowd them or be too close.
If you see an animal that eats meat, a carnivore or omnivore, you want to be at least one hundred (100) yards away.
One hundred (100) yards can be kind of hard to imagine. So Im going to show you a couple different ways to think about that.
The first one, for all of our football fans out there, is going to be to imagine a football field without the
two end zones. That is about one hundred yards (100). So you and
your hiking group should be about that distance away from a bear.
Say you're not familiar with a football field you can imagine about
eight (8) school buses distance between you and that bear.
Let's say you don't have access to eight (8) school buses when youre here in Yellowstone! Probably common. Im going to show you a
Quick way by using your thumb. So if you're out in the park oh my goodness
and if you could see a bear when you're out on the trail.
To tell that is a safe distance away, you can stick
out your thumb and focus on your fingernail and if you can have the entire
Shape of that animal within your thumb, then you are a safe distance away. Alright, out second way that we can high five to bear safety is going to be
safety in numbers.
So, when you're enjoying Yellowstone National Park, hanging out
With your friends and recreating, you always want to be in groups of three or more.
And, that is because ninety one percent (91%) of people injured by a
bear in Yellowstone since nineteen seventy (1970)
were hiking alone or with one other person.
By being in a large group that allows you to be louder as well. You never want
to scare a bear. So if you are hiking in a big group and you're going through an area
of dense vegetation - a lot of bushes or you're not quite sure what is
around the corner- you can use a bear call. Just something you can see thats
nice and loud so the bear can hear you. Something that I like to say Hey, Bear
Ranger Matt, What do you like to say? Yo Bear
And those can help you not to surprise a bear on trail. Some people also like to use
Bear Bells.
Another thing when you're in a group exploring Yellowstone National Park you
should always let someone else know, not part of your group, exactly where you are going to be
and when you should be arriving back home.
Now the next thing you can do where youre out in bear country is going to be Bear
Aware. So you are looking out for signs of bears. So you're looking
Out for their tracks or even rub trees here. And these rub trees may look
a little mangled and they may have bits of hair stuck in the bark. They are
used by bears as a way to communicate. You should also avoid places were
bears feed like carcasses or if you see an area where there's a lot of roots
Dug up and also that you should not hike when bears are the most active
In summer, that is going to be at dawn, dusk, or even nighttime.
Another way to be aware on trail is going to be looking out for signage. .
These are some examples of signage that you may see at Yellowstone and
Some really good examples of how you can stay safe and also because of that
bear management plan, sometimes we close off areas in the park where bears
have been most active. So looking out for those trail closure signs.
Next thing you can do is going to be to secure your smells!
Bear have an amazing sense of smell. Some scientists say that bears can smell a food source from
a mile or maybe even two (2) miles away. So when you are camping in
a park or you just have some trash you need to throw-away, the park has actually designed
These bear boxes, and all of our trash cans, to be relatively
bear proof.
So, because we want to have bears not in our camping areas, you should
secure anything with an oder. Ranger Matt, is there anything that you need to secure?
Should I secure my sunscreen? Definitely! So we might not think that sunscreen is tasty
But bears might smell it and be like - 66a6c767-57ac-425b-96ea-b5a5ce32b3fd
ooooh the smells of summer  I want to try it! So we want to make sure
that even our cosmetics and things that can protect us from the sun can be stored away
What about my trash?
Peehew, Ranger Matt may have had this for a while. Definitely! All of this trash may have
Food scraps on it or other tasty things were bears. So we want to secure that. What else?
How about the clothes I cooked in? Definitely! So, clothes that you cook in
could have bits of oil. Especially if you're cooking bacon along the fire.
so we want to pack in those clothes as well. With that in mind, anything that you cook your food on, or
even that youre washing your food in - those buckets should go into bear box!
And always makes sure that its secure before you leave your camp site.
If you are backpacking the part bear hangs can be used as well.
And, we have a lot of signage for places where you should secure your
Food. And these signs are in some of our campgrounds here at Yellowstone. To be bear aware.
Food storage required. Store all food in a vehicle. Now the
Bed of a truck would not be the best place because bears can get in
That too. Or your tent or a picnic table. So making sure that its in a hard sided
Car. Alright, now the very last thing you can do to be proactive in bear country
Is number five (5) help to stay alive! And that is going to be about
bear spray. Now bear spray is an aerosol
bear deterrent and that is going to prevent bears
from charging at you. What is happening is that you are going to spray a cloud
and the different chemicals, in that cloud, is going to temporarily stop a
bear from being able to smell, see, or breathe. And gives you enough
time to exit from that situation. Now every can of
bear spray or every brand is a little different. When you do purchase it or rent
you want to make sure that you read the instructions and how much spray is inside your
Can. Ehen you are hiking, or even just exploring by car in Yellowstone National Park, you
want to make sure that every person in your group has a can
of beer spray and that it is readily accessible and
In a moment, I'm going to show you how to use it by doing a demonstration. Now those are
all ways that we can be proactive by doing our research before we go into a natural
Area. So what happens if you actually see a bear in the wild? Well, lets say that you are in
your car. You should definitely honk your horn and drive away. And that's going to deter that
bear from using that behavior again. Because they're probably just looking
for food. If you are on trail and you're with a group of three or more,
You have your bear spray ready, and you're making lots of noise, but you still see a
bear ahead. If you're a far enough distance away  stop, gather group
, and walk slowly. You should never run away from a bear encounter.
Another situation would be if you are hiking along you see a bear and
It is quite close and it becomes aggressive or starts to
Charge. I'm going to show you how do you use this bear spray.
So, again, you should stay calm, do
some breathing, stand your ground, talk in low voice,
gather your group, and have everyone take out their bear spray.
You then want to stick it out in front of you, point slightly down
Remove the safety cap here,
And, you want to spray in a Z or S
Formation to form that cloud. And the idea is that the bear has to travel
through the cloud in order to get to you.
My feet are planted. I am talking a low tone and I'm going to spray.
You also want to have wind in mind.
Now you want to keep spraying your bear spray until the
bear changes direction. When it does change direction, then you can gather
your group, and again do not run, but slowly back
up and get safely back to your car or to the trail head.
No matter how small or large your bear encounter is, you should always tell
a park ranger as soon as possible. Well thank you all so much for taking the time
to be proactive and learning about the best safety practices and a little more about our
wildlife here at Yellowstone. And on behalf of myself, other visitors, and
our bears.
I just want to thank you for being bear aware to help protect and preserve
this environment for future generations. So thank you very much and have a great day!