The Hunted's View Of The Hunters

Grizzlies are attracted by the presence of hunters because of all the goodies they leave behind, while mountain lions and elk see them simply as intruders, a new study suggests.

And wolves, according to the new study of wildlife in and around Yellowstone National Park, don't care if humans are around or not.

The findings are from 10 biologists who tracked grizzly bears, mountain lions and wolves in Yellowstone's northern range and the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness Area, just north of the park. The scientists fitted the animals with collars that transmit their locations.

Bears, the scientists found, traveled from the park into the wilderness, where the hunters were. The mountain lions, on the other hand, left the wilderness during hunting season and headed for the park, possibly following elk herds that also head south.

The researchers, from government agencies and the private groups Wildlife Conservation Society and Beringia South, were not surprised by the bears' behavior.

Previous studies show hunters in the greater Yellowstone area discard as much as 500 tons of guts, bones and meat every year at about the same time the bears are in hyperphagia, a sort of feeding frenzy they enter before taking to their dens in the late fall or winter.

More than half of all grizzly deaths and human injuries occur during big-game hunting seasons, based on statistics compiled by the state fish and game agency.