Canadian Biologists in British Columbia, Canada have found that the omnivorous Grizzly Bear has a wide menu including 65 food items, 49 of them plant species..............Their outstanding sense of smell helps them hunt down these varied foodstuffs..............When they sniff at the tip of their nose, it humidifies the air, heats it up, then it comes into the brain through a cribriform plate — probably the most eloquent olfaction sense in the world in terrestrial animals.............Their widely varied diet can potentially keep a Griz alive for us to 30 years, although it is a rare bear in the wild that goes that distance...............Griz are at the top of the food chain and it us humans and our activities that lead to most Bear deaths including from our population encroachment, shootings, highway and railway accidents, fragmentation of their landscape, and loss of habitat to human development, including agriculture and industrial resource extraction............ Bears may take advantage of logging clearcuts initially, but move away as dense second-growth forests take over............ Logging roads also create higher levels of human access and traffic, leading to grizzly mortality....................Scientific reports filed with the Species at Risk Public Registry in Ottawa reveal that the ancestors of modern grizzly bears are believed to have migrated from eastern Asia to North America between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago................ Although most grizzly fossils found in southern Canada and the Northern U.S. are no more than 12,000 to 13,000 years old, a fossil near Edmonton dated to 26,000 years ago............As most of us are aware, the grizzly historically roamed throughout the western half of North America, from the Far North all the way into Mexico............ Today, the bear has lost 98 per cent of its range in the lower 48 U.S. states, and is no longer found in much of the dry southern Interior of B.C., the Prairies of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and the Ungava region of Quebec and Labrador..........26,000 Griz still call Western Canada home with about half that population located in British Columbia,,,,,,,,,thus the great need for strong protections for the Griz in B.C.

The grizzly revealed: Bear's natural

 history inspires both wonder and 

fear

BY LARRY PYNN, VANCOUVER SUN 

STORY

BC Parks operates a free grizzly-viewing station on the Atnarko River in the

 Bella Coola Valley from September through mid-October.

The Interior Salish know him as Kelowna or Kee-lau-naw, the
Sechelt as Mayuk, and the Nisga'a as Lik'inskw.  Alaskans call
 him the brown bear.

And to British Columbians he is the grizzly, a name that
 engenders
respect, wonder and fear — sometimes all at once. Even
 the Latin 
name commands attention: Ursus arctos horribilis.

No other animal better embodies the spirit of the wilderness
 than
the grizzly, an animal that has no natural predators — othe
r than
humans and others of its kind — and is also the object of
such
unrelenting attention that it has generated competing multi-
million-dollar industries designed both to kill it as a trophy
 and
to photograph it as living keepsake.

Migrated from Asia

Scientific reports filed with the Species at Risk Public
Registry
 in Ottawa reveal that the ancestors of modern grizzly
bears are
 believed to have migrated from eastern Asia to North
America
 between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago. Although most 
grizzly
 fossils found in southern Canada and the Northern U.S.
 are no
 more than 12,000 to 13,000 years old, a fossil near
 Edmonton
 dated to 26,000 years ago.

The grizzly historically roamed throughout the western
 half of
North America, from the Far North all the way into Mexico.
 Today,
 the bear has lost 98 per cent of its range in the lower 48
 U.S.
 states, and is no longer found in much of the dry southern 
Interior
 of B.C., the Prairies of Alberta, Saskatchewan and 
Manitoba, and
 the Ungava region of Quebec and Labrador.

Officially designated a species of special concern, the
 grizzly
 population in Western Canada is thought to be stable
at 26,000
 animals — 15,000 of those in B.C., emphasizing the
critical
 importance of proper management in our province.
Within that 
stable population, however, are several sub-populations 
that are
 in dire straits, including an estimated six grizzlies in the
 North 
Cascades and two in the Garibaldi-Pitt areas.

Grizzlies are distinguished by a dish-shaped skull with
 teeth
 indicative of both a predator and herbivore (large canines
 and
 crushing molars), a robust body with long fore-claws, and
powerful digging muscles that give way to a shoulder hump.
 Colour ranges from blond through shades of brown to 
nearly 
black — some display silver-tipped fur, giving way to a 
"grizzled" 
appearance.

Throughout Western Canada, grizzlies are found across
 a diverse
range of habitats, from coastal rainforests to mountain
alpine,
northern tundra as well as dry grasslands.

As omnivores, they move readily from one food source to
 another,
 exploiting a wide variety of plants as well as meat, including
 marmots
 and ungulates such as moose calves in spring, wild berries,
 spawning salmon, even the carcasses of whales and seals.
On the central B.C.
 coast, grizzlies were found to feed on 65 distinct food items,
 including
 49 plant species.

Grizzlies fatten up in fall in preparation for about five months
 or longer
— depending on the latitude — in their winter dens. They are
not true hibernators, but enter a form of sleep during which their
 metabolism
drops and they generally do not eat, drink, defecate or urinate.
 During
 that period, they will shed 16 to 37 per cent of their body weight.

Cubs weighing just half a kilogram are born in January or
February,
while the rest of us are still skiing, snowboarding or basking
 under a
tropical southern sun.During their lifetime, females will grow
 to weigh 
100 to 150 kilograms, and males 180 to 270 kilograms.
Females 
generally start to reproduce at age four to six, with three-year 
intervals between births. While grizzlies can live 20 to 30 years
 in the wild, the
 truth is few survive that long.

Threatened by people

Bruce McLellan has been studying grizzlies for the B.C.
 government
 for 35 years and is co-chair of the bear specialist group
 with the
International Union for Conservation of Nature. Last month,
as part
of long-term population studies in the Flathead Valley of
southeastern
 B.C., he captured a female grizzly — the same one he
 first captured
 as a two-year-old in 1984.

That makes her 31 years old, and among a very select
 group. Of some 
12,000 grizzlies whose ages have been recorded from
 teeth over a four-decade period in B.C., only about 10 
have reached that age, McLellan
 said.

"She has hardly any teeth left," he noted. "But she's still
 kicking. That's
 quite unique, very old."

Threats from humans include population encroachment,
shootings,
 highway and railway accidents, fragmentation of their
 landscape, and
 loss of habitat to human development, including agriculture
 and industrial resource extraction.

Bears may take advantage of logging clearcuts initially, but
 move away as dense second-growth forests take over.
Logging roads also create higher levels of human access
 and traffic, leading to grizzly mortality.

In 2012, non-resident hunters killed 69 grizzlies in B.C.,
 while residents
killed 181 grizzlies. All were trophy hunts.

Additionally last year, 43 grizzlies were killed due to conflict,
 26 of those by conservation officers, and the remainder by
 the public who felt they or their property and livestock were
threatened. The causes of deaths to another
 13 bears are unknown. Male bears are also known to kill
 cubs, potentially
 to bring a female back into estrus, or as food.

Grizzlies have large home ranges, averaging 1,800 square
 kilometres for males and 700 square kilometres for females,
 although exact ranges vary widely based on food availability.
 The Flathead has one of the densest 
grizzly populations in the province, at 57 to 80 animals per
1,000 square kilometres, compared with 10 to 12 in Jasper
 National Park, the federal Committee on the Status of
 Endangered Wildlife in Canada reports.

McLellan explained the Flathead had large wildfires from
around 1910 to
 1936, creating prime conditions for huckleberries, as well
as buffalo
 berries and saskatoon berries. "Energy foods," he said.
 "Berries are to
 Interior bears what salmon are to coastal bears." One 
study of black bears showed females could gain one 
kilogram of fat per day just from eating berries, he noted.

While bears are thought to have acceptable sight and
 hearing, it is their 
keen sense of smell that sets them apart — certainly
 from humans, but
 also even from genetically manipulated species such
 as blood hounds.

A profound sense of smell

Dr. George Stevenson is a retired neurologist who
 has worked with veterinarians since 2002 on a project
 to create an atlas of the grizzly
brain, employing modern technology such as CT scans
and MRIs,
and hopes to publish the findings this December. "Bears
 have an
 unbelievable olfactory sensation mechanism," he said
 in an interview
 from Jackson Hole, Wyo.

"When they sniff at the tip of their nose, it humidifies the air
, heats it up,
 then
 it comes into the brain through a cribriform plate — probably
 the most eloquent olfaction sense in the world in terrestrial
animals."

Humans also have a cribriform plate to support the olfactory
 bulb, vital to
 the ability to smell and distinguish odours, but it is "minuscule"
in
comparison to the grizzly, he said."When you see bears 
stand up
 and they are seven or eight feet tall, they're not looking at you,
 they're smelling you."

Polar bears are thought to have descended from grizzly bears,
 and are
known to travel 100 kilometres following the scent of a female.
In recent
years, grizzlies and polar bears have mated and produced
young, an occurrence that could become more frequent as
grizzlies expand their
way northward onto the Arctic tundra due to climate change.
Just another chapter in the life history of a complex species
 that continues to fascinate
 and inspire.