Bears and Berries: Why Shifting Seasons Require Innovative Safety Measures

With the calendar turning to a new year, bears across the Northern Rockies are snug in their winter dens. The months leading up to this hibernation season were especially difficult for many of them, however, due in part to a poor summer crop for multiple berry species.

Berries are a staple of the Northern Rockies, with long-standing cultural importance for the Indigenous tribes of the region. From mammals like deer and grizzlies to native birds and pollinators, the fruits sustain biodiversity across many landscapes. And with huckleberry pies, jams, taffies, lip balms, and even infused vodkas lining store shelves, it is clear that these simple fruits have us all in sweet-induced craze — humans and wildlife alike.

The end-of-summer berry season is especially important for bears because it aligns with hyperphagia, a period of nearly constant eating and drinking in preparation for hibernation. Colorado Parks and Wildlife estimates that black bears will eat up to 20,000 calories per day during this phase of bulking up before winter.

For grizzlies, the number can be even higher — up to 58,000 calories per day — especially in a year with strong berry growth. Berries offer a high-calorie and vitamin-dense food source for these foraging omnivores, with one study from the University of Calgary reporting that a large male grizzly can eat as many as 200,000 berries in a single day.

Human-wildlife coexistence specialists like Blair Fyten of Parks Canada warn that, due to the intensity of foraging in the late summer and early fall, bears are less likely to notice people nearby — making proven safety measures such as traveling in groups, carrying bear spray, and frequently making noise even more crucial to continued coexistence.

Uncertain Seasons Pose Safety Challenges

In addition to huckleberries, Silver buffaloberries are another bear favorite during hyperphagia. Widespread as a native shrub through the Dakotas and Montana, and northward through southern Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, these bitter berries were traditionally used by Indigenous peoples as dyes, medicines, and as sauce for bison meat.

But for bears in the region, the historical reliance on buffaloberries is threatened. A 2019 study by researchers at the University of Calgary forecasts that warmer average temperatures in the Northern Rockies could lead to a troubling mismatch between bears’ peak foraging weeks and the height of buffaloberry season. Their analysis reveals that in as little as 60 years, buffaloberries could ripen as much as three weeks earlier, with these temporal shifts more extreme at higher elevations. As plants respond to changing temperatures by producing berries earlier, bears will have a shorter window in which to feed on one of their central food sources.

“They’re going to have to look for alternate food resources,” said the lead author of the study, David Laskin, in a CBC interview. “This might lead them into places where they wouldn’t normally go. Places where they might get themselves into trouble.”

In Alberta’s Banff National Park, wildlife specialists report that hot and dry conditions in 2021 led to the buffaloberry crop being reduced by 80 percent from its 2020 level. Fyten said their 2022 season was repeating that shortage.

According to Fyten, these berry deficits will likely cause bears to turn to grazing and animal carcasses for sustenance. He worries that attractants like garbage and urban fruit trees may pose a higher risk as bears become increasingly desperate for alternative food sources.

“Most conflicts between people and bears are traced to easy-to-get human food, garbage, pet food, bird seed, etc.,” says Colorado Parks and Wildlife. “When people allow bears to find food, a bear’s natural drive to eat can overcome its wariness of humans.”

Steps Toward Coexistence

As successful conservation efforts allow grizzlies to repopulate portions of their historic range and as changing berry availability alters bear foraging patterns, coexistence will rely on continued vigilance by landowners to ensure attractants are secured across grizzly country.

Since our formation, Vital Ground has partnered with organizations that help communities and landowners implement preventive safety measures in high-priority areas. We are proud to continue providing grants for a variety of creative conflict-reduction projects.

In the Seeley-Swan area, partnerships with Swan Valley Bear Resources and the Clearwater Resource Council have helped numerous businesses and landowners secure garbage and domestic livestock with electric fencing. In the Flathead Valley, our partner People and Carnivores provides electric fencing on farms and fruit orchards.

Vital Ground also supports the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, who teach local landowners about cider-pressing and fruit-gleaning to minimize attractants on their properties, among other long-standing coexistence practices.

It is an honor to be surrounded by communities committed to a future of coexistence with bears and other wildlife. Thanks to our partners and individual supporters, we are able to complement our primary work of conserving key habitat with these essential conflict prevention measures so that bears, other wildlife species and people can all stay safe while enjoying the natural — and delicious — offerings of our shared home.

About Vital Ground:

An accredited land trust and 501(c)(3) organization, Vital Ground conserves habitat for grizzly bears and other wildlife in the Northern Rockies. Founded in 1990 and based in Missoula, Mont., the organization also partners with communities to prevent conflicts between bears and people. Learn more at http://www.vitalground.org or contact us at info@vitalground.org.