Posted on 08/26/2017 7:46:11 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
Grizzly bears have stopped eating salmon in favour of elderberries after being forced to make a choice due to climate change.
Warming temperatures meant that the berries are ripening earlier than usual, at exactly the same time as the freshwater streams on Alaskas Kodiak Island are overflowing with sockeye salmon.
The island's brown bears typically feed first on salmon in early summer, followed by elderberries later in the season, in late August and September.
What you have is a scrambling of the schedule," said William Deacy, a biologist at Oregon State University that studied the phenomenon.
"It's essentially like if breakfast and lunch were served at same time and then there is nothing to eat until dinner. You have to choose between breakfast and lunch because you can only eat so much at a time."
The study found that during the unusually warm summer of 2014, the bears, which would traditionally kill up to 75 percent of the salmon, were nowhere to be seen near the streams.
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.news.yahoo.com ...
so, it’s easier to pick berries, so that’s what they’re doing?
Up in Denali, berries are pretty much all they eat.
They’re flexible that way. Do Not worry about the survival of bears. They kind of know what they are doing.
Bears eat whatever is at hand. They don't give a damn. Heck they will even eat bells and pepper spray and North Face Jackets.
GW making them eat their dessert before their meat.
Sounds like the polar bears stuck on ice floes.
Grizzlies eat a lot, particularly about now, so as to pack on the pounds for winter. The berries have a lot of calories. I’d think they are easier to catch than salmon. This guy seems to think that there is only one salmon run, too. The bears are probably just doing dessert after a hard day fishing.
Nevermind there are dozens of years old children stories about blueberry eating bears.
Trump’s fault!
LOL...I always get a kick out of the classic “How do you know it’s griz scat?” joke.
Somebody is fudging the observations. Feeding on berries alone won't give them what they need.
i think this writer should go out in the woods find a hungry grizzly and confront him without any weapons just to make sure he won’t eat meat.
BIG Group Cheer from the Salmon community!!
The study found that during the unusually warm summer of 2014, the bears, which would traditionally kill up to 75 percent of the salmon, were nowhere to be seen near the streams.
...
Good news for salmon.
I’ve seen videos where they aren’t even eating the fish - they catch them, peel the skin off, eat the skin for the fatty content and throw away the fish. If those bears were in fat production mode, they wouldn’t feel like eating berries at all if there were fish nearby. That’s what I would think.
They only swim upstream to die anyway.
“Grizzly bears have stopped eating salmon”
Lies!
Then they pretend to recommend defense against bear attacks and never mention GUNS.
LOL. I’m sure bears like Salmon, however when I lived in Wyoming there weren’t any Salmon and the grizzly bears seemed to be happy campers feeding on what was at hand. That goes for Colorado, and Montana too. No Salmon, plenty of bears.
Exactly. Films show the rotting salmon carcasses with dangling entrails all overcthe stream beds.
And when a Tim Treadwell shows up with his girlfriend, well it’s a gift from Ursus Major in the heavens. Deelish!
Omnivores have been seen eating berries!!! Therefore Climate Change.
Da bearse like to get drunk on fermenting fruit.
Even their fathers smelt of elderberries.
Of course they feed from available sources, but somewhere in the food chain they need to acquire the necessary fat. Other types of fish, human garbage from local dumps, etc.
Big pastime in Maine’s Baxter State Park was the park dump where the bears would gather in the afternoons scrounging for edibles. Some stupid tourists are always on the verge of being on the black bears menus.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.