Randy discusses the conundrum of the “grizzly bear recovery” program. After over 50 years on the endangered species list, the population has more than recovered, it is thriving.
Thumbnail photo by Cathy Selby.
There are two points in the video where there is a notice, “read the description”. Here are the 2 notes. Also, for more information, a great resource is Trinity Vandenacre of Life in the West. His YT channel [and other social media outlets] are a wealth of information on grizzlies, wolves, land use in the west, etc.
First note: Read the book, Playing God in Yellowstone by Alston Chase. He documents a lot of this, and more, about the ways that mismanagement in Yellowstone National Park has led to our current issues. Randy has also talked with feet-on-the-ground men who were working in the Park and surrounding area during the debacle that led to the listing as endangered.
Second note: “In the spring of 1961, the most photographed animal in Yellowstone National Park was a 225-pound grizzly bear mother named Sylvia who let tourists walk within arm's reach of her and her three cubs. The researcher studying her wrote six words in his journal: she will probably cause trouble.
John Craighead first encountered Sylvia in late July 1959 near the Old Faithful complex. He and his brother Frank had been retained by the National Park Service to conduct the first comprehensive long-term study of Yellowstone's grizzly bear population, a project that would run from 1959 to 1971 and produce the foundational science behind grizzly conservation in the lower 48.
They were trapping, tagging, and tracking every grizzly they could find in the ecosystem. They had handled bears that charged the trap, bears that destroyed equipment, bears that chased researchers to their vehicles. One massive male they designated Ivan, as in Ivan the Terrible, went berserk in the bear cage, injured himself trying to escape, and then pursued the research team by car after his release. Craighead described him in his journal as a giant berserk Frankenstein.
Sylvia was the opposite problem. She was the tamest grizzly the Craigheads ever encountered. She would calmly allow the scientists to approach within twenty-five feet. She did not bluff charge. She did not flatten her ears or pop her jaw. She grazed the meadows in front of Old Faithful Lodge with her three cubs, each one no larger than a lapdog, while tourists circled her with cameras. She ambled along the Firehole River in broad daylight. She appeared to pose beside the geyser itself. Visitors treated her like a park attraction. The ultimate souvenir from a 1961 Yellowstone vacation was a closeup of Sylvia and her cubs.
Craighead understood what the tourists did not. A tame grizzly is not a safe grizzly. A tame grizzly is a grizzly that has stopped calculating the risk of proximity to humans, and the moment that calculation fails, the failure is catastrophic.
The Craighead study ran for twelve years and produced science that fundamentally reshaped how the United States managed grizzly bears. Before the Craigheads, virtually nothing was known about grizzly reproduction rates, home range sizes, mortality causes, population structure, or habitat requirements. The brothers pioneered radio-collar tracking on grizzlies, developed the first population models for the species, and fought publicly with the Park Service over the closure of garbage dumps that had been feeding bears for decades. The Craigheads argued for a gradual weaning process.
The Park Service insisted on cold-turkey closure. The dumps were shut abruptly. Bears that had depended on garbage for calories dispersed into campgrounds and developed areas looking for replacement food. Many were killed by management actions. The grizzly population in Yellowstone crashed. The Craigheads' data showed the crash in real time. The Park Service terminated their research access in 1971.
Craighead's six-word journal entry was not about one bear. It was about a system. A national park was letting millions of visitors interact at close range with a wild grizzly mother and her cubs, and the only person writing down that this was going to end badly was a researcher whose access would eventually be revoked for saying so.”
Source: John Craighead journals, Montana State University Archives, via JSTOR Daily / Craighead, Sumner, and Mitchell, "The Grizzly Bears of Yellowstone," Island Press, 1995 / National Geographic Education Blog.
Follow us on Rumble: https://rumble.com/v7b5gxe-grizzly-recovery-conudrum.html
Support The Real Gunsmith’s Wife, Cathy, if you feel so inclined. And thanks, if you do! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/cathyselby
https://www.randyscustomrifles.com
Support us on Patreon, https://patreon.com/therealgunsmith for at least 48 exclusive videos by Randy, as well as photography, artography, articles and items of interest that we like to share with our Patrons. We truly appreciate the support of our Patrons.
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![Randy discusses the conundrum of the “grizzly bear recovery” program. After over 50 years on the endangered species list, the population has more than recovered, it is thriving.
Thumbnail photo by Cathy Selby.
There are two points in the video where there is a notice, “read the description”. Here are the 2 notes. Also, for more information, a great resource is Trinity Vandenacre of Life in the West. His YT channel [and other social media outlets] are a wealth of information on grizzlies, wolves, land use in the west, etc.
First note: Read the book, Playing God in Yellowstone by Alston Chase. He documents a lot of this, and more, about the ways that mismanagement in Yellowstone National Park has led to our current issues. Randy has also talked with feet-on-the-ground men who were working in the Park and surrounding area during the debacle that led to the listing as endangered.
Second note: “In the spring of 1961, the most photographed animal in Yellowstone National Park was a 225-pound grizzly bear mother named Sylvia who let tourists walk within arm's reach of her and her three cubs. The researcher studying her wrote six words in his journal: she will probably cause trouble.
John Craighead first encountered Sylvia in late July 1959 near the Old Faithful complex. He and his brother Frank had been retained by the National Park Service to conduct the first comprehensive long-term study of Yellowstone's grizzly bear population, a project that would run from 1959 to 1971 and produce the foundational science behind grizzly conservation in the lower 48.
They were trapping, tagging, and tracking every grizzly they could find in the ecosystem. They had handled bears that charged the trap, bears that destroyed equipment, bears that chased researchers to their vehicles. One massive male they designated Ivan, as in Ivan the Terrible, went berserk in the bear cage, injured himself trying to escape, and then pursued the research team by car after his release. Craighead described him in his journal as a giant berserk Frankenstein.
Sylvia was the opposite problem. She was the tamest grizzly the Craigheads ever encountered. She would calmly allow the scientists to approach within twenty-five feet. She did not bluff charge. She did not flatten her ears or pop her jaw. She grazed the meadows in front of Old Faithful Lodge with her three cubs, each one no larger than a lapdog, while tourists circled her with cameras. She ambled along the Firehole River in broad daylight. She appeared to pose beside the geyser itself. Visitors treated her like a park attraction. The ultimate souvenir from a 1961 Yellowstone vacation was a closeup of Sylvia and her cubs.
Craighead understood what the tourists did not. A tame grizzly is not a safe grizzly. A tame grizzly is a grizzly that has stopped calculating the risk of proximity to humans, and the moment that calculation fails, the failure is catastrophic.
The Craighead study ran for twelve years and produced science that fundamentally reshaped how the United States managed grizzly bears. Before the Craigheads, virtually nothing was known about grizzly reproduction rates, home range sizes, mortality causes, population structure, or habitat requirements. The brothers pioneered radio-collar tracking on grizzlies, developed the first population models for the species, and fought publicly with the Park Service over the closure of garbage dumps that had been feeding bears for decades. The Craigheads argued for a gradual weaning process.
The Park Service insisted on cold-turkey closure. The dumps were shut abruptly. Bears that had depended on garbage for calories dispersed into campgrounds and developed areas looking for replacement food. Many were killed by management actions. The grizzly population in Yellowstone crashed. The Craigheads' data showed the crash in real time. The Park Service terminated their research access in 1971.
Craighead's six-word journal entry was not about one bear. It was about a system. A national park was letting millions of visitors interact at close range with a wild grizzly mother and her cubs, and the only person writing down that this was going to end badly was a researcher whose access would eventually be revoked for saying so.”
Source: John Craighead journals, Montana State University Archives, via JSTOR Daily / Craighead, Sumner, and Mitchell, "The Grizzly Bears of Yellowstone," Island Press, 1995 / National Geographic Education Blog.
Follow us on Rumble: https://rumble.com/v7b5gxe-grizzly-recovery-conudrum.html
Support The Real Gunsmith’s Wife, Cathy, if you feel so inclined. And thanks, if you do! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/cathyselby
https://www.randyscustomrifles.com
Support us on Patreon, https://patreon.com/therealgunsmith for at least 48 exclusive videos by Randy, as well as photography, artography, articles and items of interest that we like to share with our Patrons. We truly appreciate the support of our Patrons.](https://randyscustomrifles.com/wp-content/plugins/youtube-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)
Grizzly recovery conundrum
The Real Gunsmith June 11, 2026 2:39 pm