If it seems like you’ve seen more bear cubs in the Park this year, you were probably right.  Here’s part of an interesting story out of the Billings Gazette…..all the more reason to be bear smart when out and about in the Park.

BILLINGS, Mont.  - An abundance of protein-packed, whitebark pine nuts apparently helped a near-record 50 female grizzlies produce cubs this year in and around Yellowstone National Park.  Yellowstone biologists counted 52 female grizzlies with cubs in 2002.

Chuck Schwartz, leader of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, said the numbers released Wednesday are typical after a year with good production of whitebark pine nuts, which grizzlies rely on for food.

“We see these pulses,” Schwartz said. Fewer females are expected to have cubs next year, because the females who had cubs this year won’t breed next year, he said.

Also in years following a good pine nut crop, females tend to produce more three-cub litters. This year, 18 of 50 litters observed had three cubs.

Biologists conduct an annual tally of female grizzlies with cubs of the year as a way to gauge the overall health of the population. Last year, 46 were observed; in 2005, there were 31.

Wildlife officials still estimate the overall grizzly population inside Yellowstone and in the “recovery zone” outside the park is 400 to 600, although Schwartz said that’s a conservative figure.

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