{"id":888,"date":"2016-10-05T06:09:22","date_gmt":"2016-10-05T06:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.georgebumann.com\/gb\/?p=888"},"modified":"2016-10-05T06:12:20","modified_gmt":"2016-10-05T06:12:20","slug":"grizzly-at-bus-stop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.georgebumann.com\/gb\/grizzly-at-bus-stop\/","title":{"rendered":"Grizzly Bear at the Bus Stop"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Backpack, check. Coat, check, lunch, check. Bear spray&#8230;.. check. With the arrival of autumn comes the return of morning walks to the bus with young George, apples ripening on the\u00a0tree\u00a0and the prospect of coming face to face with one of North America&#8217;s largest carnivores. The \u201cnightly news\u201d of Gardiner, Montana &#8211; reports via footage from backyard trail cameras\u00a0and\u00a0Facebook, that one or more grizzlies\u00a0has been making the rounds through the backyards and streets of\u00a0town in search of laden\u00a0apples trees and improperly secured garbage.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Back Yard Grizzly\" width=\"625\" height=\"469\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/B3Mgwm5cdXM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em>Footage compliments of K. Short<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Our\u00a0neighbors reported signs of a grizzly in their yard just recently. And as we make that early morning walk along the gravel drive to the bus stop, the bears are returning to wooded areas to settle down after a night on the\u00a0town. In late fall\u00a0means\u00a0hyperphagia &#8211; a bear&#8217;s version of binge eating &#8211; to put on as much weight as possible before a long winter hibernation. They roam the landscape like vacuum cleaners\u00a0with voracious appetites, searching for food that will help them pack on the pounds. For some\u00a0of the ecosystem\u2019s grizzlies, this means scavenging carcasses or foraging at high elevations for white-bark pine nuts and \u00a0the\u00a0&#8216;butterballs&#8217; of bear cuisine &#8211; army cutworm moths &#8211; living packets of fat and protein which take refuge in the millions beneath the rocks on the high rocky slopes of the Gallatin and Absaroka mountains. But each year, at the tail end of apple harvest season, a handful of bears venture down from the mountains to roam the backyards and streets of Gardiner in search of an easy meal; apples, garbage, dog food, bird feeders. We watch daily for the tell-tale signs; big piles of orange scat filled with apple skins, and limbs ripped from\u00a0the unlucky trees. We try to be good neighbors; picking apples early, collecting fallen ones from the ground, and carefully storing our trash and any other attractants in hopes of avoiding a surprise encounter. Even so, it\u2019s nearly impossible to remove everything. Habit, fueled by flawless memories and an uncanny sense of timing, lead them back to years-old feeding sites in hopes of just one more reward.<\/p>\n<p>So, with a slight tingle on the backs, we walk the 200 yards to the bus stop, past the apple grove, wondering what may be bedded in the sage or\u00a0aspens along the way. Some might think we\u2019re crazy, but we wouldn\u2019t trade it for anything. What would this\u00a0world be without things\u00a0that make us feel small, inadequate or outright terrified at times? Grizzlies are the very essence of what lies in the heart of\u00a0these mountains &#8211; wildness. Whether it\u2019s bison in the backyard or grizzlies at the bus stop, to live in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is to live a wild life.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_895\" style=\"width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-895\" class=\"wp-image-895 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.georgebumann.com\/gb\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMGP3220.jpg\" alt=\"imgp3220\" width=\"800\" height=\"334\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.georgebumann.com\/gb\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMGP3220.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.georgebumann.com\/gb\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMGP3220-300x125.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.georgebumann.com\/gb\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMGP3220-768x321.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.georgebumann.com\/gb\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMGP3220-624x261.jpg 624w, https:\/\/www.georgebumann.com\/gb\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMGP3220-75x31.jpg 75w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-895\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">As always, the bear has the last word.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Backpack, check. Coat, check, lunch, check. Bear spray&#8230;.. check. With the arrival of autumn comes the return of morning walks to the bus with young George, apples ripening on the\u00a0tree\u00a0and the prospect of coming face to face with one of North America&#8217;s largest carnivores. The \u201cnightly news\u201d of Gardiner, Montana &#8211; reports via footage from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-out-about"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgebumann.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgebumann.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgebumann.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgebumann.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgebumann.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgebumann.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":900,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgebumann.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions\/900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgebumann.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgebumann.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgebumann.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}