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Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Grizzly bears sure are curious animals! Check out this grizzly bear attempting to become a photographer - too cute!

Check out the video and see for yourself! Canada's Newest Wildlife Photographer Inspects Camera Tripod

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Who or what is really the biggest threat to the grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park? Take a guess, and then watch this video to find out if you're right.

Surprising Culprit Threatening Yellowstone Grizzly Bears

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Grizzly bears are great protein eaters, but unlike the lions, tigers, and polar bears who are pure meat eaters (also known as “carnivores”), grizzlies are “omnivores”. An omnivore eats both meat and fruits and veggies. Grizzlies will happily devour vast amounts of salmon during the salmon runs or wolf down a moose or elk they come upon. They will also move a ton of earth to get at a squirrel (who most often escapes), too, but most of a grizzly’s diet consists of berries and other plants. During the late summer and early fall. grizzlies can be found rolling through blueberry, huckleberry and other berry patches munching down these delicious fruits as fast as they can get to them. But they can just as likely be found catching salmon as the make their spawning runs up local rivers. Grizzlies are territorial and will stake out their food claims, whether it be the cold salmon-filled rivers of Alaska or a sunny hillside covered with berry bushes and vines.

Monday, February 2, 2015

The average adult Grizzly can easily weigh in at 700 pounds or more. Male Grizzlies can range up to 1,700 pounds, while large females can weigh up to 800 pounds. The Kodiak Grizzlies, named for their home on Kodiak Island in Alaska, are a little larger and can weigh up to 2,000 pounds, although their average weight is often between 1200-1500 pounds, with the Kodiak Grizzly females ranging up to 1,000 pounds. This weight difference among these two types of grizzlies is due to their diet. The Kodiak Grizzly’s diet is very high in protein because the supply of Alaskan salmon is vast on Kodiak Island, providing a great source of food and calories.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

In order to survive the cold winter, grizzly bears eat a great deal of food during the spring, summer, and fall, gaining as much as 2 pounds of body weight per day, so that they can live off of their body fat during their winter hibernation.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Although grizzly bears can weigh up to 1700 pounds or more, they are incredibly fast runners, and can reach speeds of up to 30 miles per hour. Despite their massive size, they are quite agile and can turn on a dime. Don’t ever try to outrun a grizzly bear, because they can run the length of a football field in less than 7 seconds, which is much quicker than the fastest human runner on earth.

To watch a grizzly bear run at incredible speeds, click here.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

The female Grizzly Bear is the one of the most protective mothers on this earth. She will battle male Grizzlies twice her size, or anyone else, man or beast, who threatens her cubs. She will also risk her own life to keep them safe from natural or man made hazards in order to protect them. Watch this video of a mother Grizzly Bear protecting her young cubs from the dangers of a waterfall. This is just one example of what a mother Grizzly Bear will do to keep her cubs safe. Enjoy the adventure and admire this mother bear’s courage…

USA Today Video - Bear Saves Cubs

Monday, January 5, 2015
Female grizzly bears give birth to cubs during their hibernation. Each brand new cub weighs about 1 pound, usually with the births taking place in January or February. By the time they emerge from their hibernation in April or May, after nursing in their den throughout those months, the cubs weigh in at about 20 pounds, and are rambunctious, adorable, and ready to explore their new world.
Friday, December 19, 2014

Love these signs! Watch for bears and always drive carefully!

More bear signs!.jpg Love these signs!  Watch for bears and always drive carefully!_0.JPG
Sunday, March 9, 2014

The female grizzly is the most protective mother mammal. They will fight to their death to defend their cubs from any threat, even male grizzlies twice their size. The most dangerous situation is when a female grizzly is surprised when with their cubs. On July 6, 2011, two hikers from Southern California were visiting Yellowstone Park, hiking a popular trail, when they came across a female with two cubs. In a blink of an eye, the female grizzly sought to remove her perceived threat, lashing out at the hikers. Because she was surprised the mama grizzly immediately reacted to protect her cubs, charging the male hiker, dispatching him in a second and then turning to the man’s wife, she grabbed the women by her backpack and flung her into the air. The mother grizzly then ran off with her cubs, now safely protected, back into the woods. While the hikers meant no harm to the bears, unintended surprise is what killed one and left the other with nightmares for the rest of her life. Remember, a grizzly can crush the skull of a moose with a simple swipe of the paw. A grizzly’s jaws can also slice through tree limbs thicker than a man’s arm and cover a hundred feet in less than three seconds. So, the wayward hikers who surprised the mama bear and her cubs had little chance. Always make noise, sing, chant, call out, etc. when in grizzly country. Grizzlies do not want encounters with humans, and they will try and avoid an encounter, so making noise is one of the best defenses in avoiding a bear attack.

This was the first human kill by a grizzly in the Yellowstone in 25 years. The Park Rangers deserve praise for avoiding a knee-jerk reaction and choosing to not kill the female bear. Instead they made the reasoned, measured decision to let her live, because she was just doing as nature intended, protecting her young. While our condolences go out to the family, the hiker died in the spirit of the wilderness, and his story will be remembered and told around the campfire.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

The Amazon: vast, beautiful, and mysterious. The Amazon River is an artery of Earth’s fresh water system, and lung to its air supply. The world is drawn to her as media, scientists, and environmentalists rail on the exploitation of de-forest/jungle-station. There is another artery and lung of Earth’s life source (water/air), little known, but nestled in the bosom of North America, reaching around the Arctic Circle, making up 29% of the Earth’s forest and is the largest land biome on the planet.

The bulk of this area is known as the Taiga, or more commonly referred to as the Boreal Forest, it runs across Canada, Alaska, Russia and Mongolia and reaches around to Finland, Sweden and Norway, extending down into the northern edges of the United States. This expansive region contains 85 species of mammals, 130 species of fish, and approximately 32,000 species of insects. This is also home to our Great Grizzly. The Boreal is more threatened than the Amazon. Vast expanses of oil reserves, tar sands (sand filled with oil), timber, fur trade, gold, diamonds and other minerals, as well as being located next to the vast consumption machines of 300 million Americans, 140 million Russians with a billion Chinese and another billion Indians just to the south of its Asian frontier all threatening its existence with a continuous assault on it riches.

The Boreal is being exploited by a confluence of governments, industries, corporations, and even Aboriginal groups (who can exploit resources based on ancestral treaty rights) all working hand in hand to pillage vast portions of the Boreal as they have been doing for a hundred years. But, now the Boreal’s onslaught is greater than ever, as rampant unchecked global population expansion, closing towards 7 billion people, placing greater demands for more and more resources grows. With new modern technology allowing the vast exploitation in the most frigid and inhospitable areas, even these regions are no longer safe from the shredding, cleaving, tearing and destruction by man.

Now is the time to unite to fight the assault upon these lands. It has been well documented that it is never enough to trust governments to do the right thing, as they are influenced and controlled by lobbyists, bribery, and jobs in the industries they regulate upon their retirements, and the vast power of huge corporations. The veil of secrecy was lifted just a bit for all to see when in 2010 the Deep Water Horizon deep offshore oil rig blew out in the Gulf of Mexico, poisoning the waters as it spewed millions of gallons of raw oil, destroying sea life and polluting the waters, shore line and beaches, while planes laden with toxic chemicals sprayed the ocean surface to try and break up the vast oil slicks with chemicals banned in Europe. We saw the cozy relationship that oil companies share with government officials running all the way to the White House resulting in regulators’ lack of oversight of the oil industry, with safety standards waived, oversight waived and regulators moving into jobs with the very companies they are charged to oversee. If we want to protect these lands we cannot hope to stop the exploitation unless a new radical change is made, because there is too much money to be made, and we cannot rely on governments to protect these lands.

Now is the time for a revolutionary approach to oversight. We seek to have an independent watchdog, outside of governments, industries, corporations. All these players would contribute to a fund on a proportionate basis as to their exploitation and profits. This fund would be used to pay for the independent oversight, with the oversight provided by truly altruistic groups like Green Peace, World Wildlife Fund, The Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife, etc. Environmental groups must recognize that there will be exploitation, however, if they gain the power to oversee and place observers in the field and have the power to shut down and fine for violations on every project, it could be a game- changer for protection of our lands. As for the industries, they would certainly balk because their power to influence, and bribe would be vastly curtailed, they would complain that costs would go up. But if everyone has to abide by the same rules, then there is no cost disadvantage.

Friday, May 24, 2013

For more than 70 years, the LA River in Southern California (Google Earth: LA River) has been not more than a vast sprawling concrete-lined channel, cutting like a crater through the center of the Los Angeles basin, from the mountains north of Los Angeles to the ocean shores. Things changed greatly from its original meandering flow through the basin, described in 1877, by famed engineer, William Mulholland, as “a beautiful, limpid little stream with willows on its banks“ and as one of the city’s “greatest attractions”. Unique among rivers where vast arteries like the mighty Mississippi, Amazon, Nile, Colorado and more flow year round; the LA River can go from moments of raging torrents and rapids during the rainy season to mere trickles of water disappearing into her sands in the 100 degree heat L.A. summers

For seventy years, since man thought he should control nature with concrete, the LA River has fallen victim to this way of thinking. As bulldozers carved away at her banks, and concrete laced her shores, she became sterile and devoid of life, except for small bands of nighttime intruders armed with cans of paint who tattooed her walls with their tribal marks, a few sprinklings of homeless encampments, and some hidden hotbeds of criminal activity. And for years, any blade of grass, weed, or other fauna seeking to push up through her concrete lining would be met and destroyed with a phalanx of bulldozer blades to slice the life from them.

It was in the 1930s that the Los Angeles River was concreted for 38 of her 51 miles by engineers seeking to protect the vast LA basin from flooding. It was a massive project that created many jobs, and it went on to grow to be a giant budgetary powerhouse for those agencies overseeing her welfare. Destroying the natural ecology of the river with concrete, fencing, and barbed wire, the river was sealed for seventy years from the decent general public with threats of arrest and incarceration for the simple act of just approaching her river bank.

Fortunately, through the hard work of grass roots groups, ecologists, naturalists, and countless others, along with the great work of “The Friends of the LA River,” there began a change in the river’s destiny. At long last, the Army Corp of Engineers, LA Public Works, County Flood Control and other agencies began to allow the natural flora and fauna to slowly return as sands washed down from the hills into her channels providing shelter for seeds, and new life soon pushed up through the concrete.

As we Angelinos look back and watch this gradual process, it is as if we are watching the springing of life on a planet, its surface, once desolate of life, now becoming a Phoenix, rising up through the concrete. Biking and hiking paths now adjoin her banks, and most recently, three miles have been opened to kayaking. There is still great work to be done in opening this beautiful river up to life, but a start has been made.

You can make a direct impact by making your voice heard, by studying the issues and getting involved. Contact your local government officials, write letters to editors, blog, join established organizations, or even start your own. Become a volunteer. Many wonderful organizations can use your help. One person, one voice can make a difference!

Connect with us and others here on the Bushland blog with your thoughts, ideas, and reflections on how to help defend our planet Earth. Your comments and suggestions may be selected to be published on our website.

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