The survivability of mature cows has always been pretty good. The problem is calf recruitment. The majority of calves are not surviving their first year.
The survivability of mature cows has always been pretty good. The problem is calf recruitment. The majority of calves are not surviving their first year.
Those newborns are a bears favorite food. And they do clean up in the spring on calves and fawns. They did some digging into this in Alaska and got their eyes opened.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017...ootage-reveals
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm...icles_id%3D539
So when we have calf recruitment issues I would think this would be the #1 culprit.
You can take the man out of the wilderness but you cant take the wilderness out of the man.
I agree it is a good theory that bears are taking calves but this in not Alaska, could be different here for a number of different reasons. I would subscribe to the theory more myself but have seen thousands of spring bear scats and rarely see hair or bone, just grass.
I'm shocked to see that the highest mortality rate is by unlicensed hunters and the lowest was by licensed hunters.
Pretty upsetting to say the least.
The highest mortality rate is wolves
It is well to try and journey ones road and to fight with the air.Man must die! At worst he can die a little sooner." (H Ryder Haggard)