mightyhunter
Very Active Member
- Messages
- 1,206
http://billingsgazette.com/news/sta...-e255b5ca1050.html?comment_form=true#comments
I read this article over and over again in an attempt to make some sense of it. They are linking the decline in the elk in YNP to the decline in the cutthroat trout in YNP. They claim that the grizzly bear has had to alter its food source to elk now that the cutthroat trout populations in YNP have significantly declined. There is some dispute over what has caused the decline of the Yellowstone Cutthroat in YNP. Some say it is the lake trout that the first YNP Superintendent put in YNP over a century ago. Others claim it is the silting of the spawning streams as a result of the YNP "let it burn" policy. Logic tells me that historically the Yellowstone Cutthroat was likely only susceptible to bear predation for a short period of time every year during spawning in the small tributaries to Yellowstone Lake.
My conclusion is this is another attempt to deflect away from the root cause of the decline in elk in YNP and the surrounding areas. I find this kind of science to be political in nature and not very helpful.
I read this article over and over again in an attempt to make some sense of it. They are linking the decline in the elk in YNP to the decline in the cutthroat trout in YNP. They claim that the grizzly bear has had to alter its food source to elk now that the cutthroat trout populations in YNP have significantly declined. There is some dispute over what has caused the decline of the Yellowstone Cutthroat in YNP. Some say it is the lake trout that the first YNP Superintendent put in YNP over a century ago. Others claim it is the silting of the spawning streams as a result of the YNP "let it burn" policy. Logic tells me that historically the Yellowstone Cutthroat was likely only susceptible to bear predation for a short period of time every year during spawning in the small tributaries to Yellowstone Lake.
My conclusion is this is another attempt to deflect away from the root cause of the decline in elk in YNP and the surrounding areas. I find this kind of science to be political in nature and not very helpful.
