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As Lewis and Clark broke winter camp in present-day North Dakota to head west, the Mandans warned the explorers to be on the lookout for grizzly bears, fierce, powerful creatures. Just a few weeks later, the Corps met their first of many grizzlies. The men’s journals are filled with stories — of how shot and wounded bears maintained enough strength to pursue them, of the time when a bear chased Lewis into the river.
As these stories were retold by others, the bears’ reputation grew tremendously. Some even said the bears thirsted for human blood. Their scientific name — ursus arctos horribilis — permanently secured in place their ferocious, mean reputation, which largely contributed to their decline. As pioneers moved west, fed by these stories of blood-thirsty creatures, they shot and poisoned many bears. Further, as land became fragmented, bears no longer had freedom to roam. They retreated to rocky, forested places, away from men.
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In Their Own Words... |
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"These bear being so hard to die reather intimidates us all; I must confess that I do not like the gentlemen and had reather fight two Indians than one bear."
~ Lewis, shortly after a bear — that had been shot — pursued one of his men | | About 100,000 grizzly bears roamed the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains during Lewis and Clark’s time. Today, only about 1,000 grizzly bears still exist in the lower 48 states, and many of their last refuges are at risk.
Half of these remaining bears live in the mountains and plains along Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front — their last stronghold on the plains. Maintaining this open, vibrantly diverse landscape is critical to their longevity. In the last 20 years, the Conservancy and private landowners have conserved nearly 47,500 acres in this area, at the heart of which lies the Conservancy’s 15,500-acre Pine Butte Swamp Preserve.
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