Yellowstone Science Volume 6, Number 1
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Yellowstone Science A quarterly publication devoted to the natural and cultural resources ·A Chat with a Grizzly Bear Expert Carrion Beetles and Biodiversity. Observing Yellowstone Otters Volume 6 Number I The Legacy of Research As we begin a new year for Yellowstone But scientific understanding comes big and small. Studies ofnon-charismatic Science (the journal and, more important, slowly, often with p_ainstaking effort. creatures and features are as vital to our the program), we might consider the As a graduate student I was cautioned understanding the ecosystem as those of value of the varied research undertaken that my goal should not be to save the megafauna. in and around the park. It is popular in world with my research, but to contrib For 24 years, Dick Knight studied some circles to criticize the money we ute a small piece of knowledge from a one ofYellowstone's most famous and our society, not just the National Park Ser particular time and place to just one dis controversial species. With ?, bluntness vice-spend on science. Even many of cipline. I recalled this advice as I spoke atypical of most government bureau us who work within a scientific discipline with Nathan Varley, who in this issue crats, he answered much of what we admit that the ever-present "we need shares results of his work on river otters, demanded to know about grizzly bears, more data" can be both a truthful state about his worry that he could not defini never seeking the mantel of fame or ment and an excuse for not taking a stand. tively comment about their abundance. limelight that often falls easily upon Researchers themselves are often Otters have not previously been studied biologists who study endangered spe prone to apologize for not being able to here, and his observations oftheir behav cies. At the end of his career he mar give definitive answers to what may seem iors and distribution are a valuable con vels at how much there is still to learn, like simple questions. How many species tribution to Yellowstone science. and leaves us with a rich legacy of re are there in Yellowstone? How abundant Sandwiched between two stories of search added to the body of know ledge is each one? Should there be more, and popular favorites is Derek Sikes' article about grizzly bears. For myself and for what can we do to make it so? Our ea on canion beetles. His fascination with many others who value the wild crea gerness to learn and to do right in our the often-overlooked invertebrate fauna tures ofYellowstone, I say thank you, mission to conserve the park's compo comes through with humor as he reminds and farewell. nent species and ecological processes us how much we have yet to learn about makes us anxious to know with certainty. the complex interactions among species, SCM Yellowstone Science A quarterly publication devoted to the natural and cultural resources Volume 6 Number 1 Winter 1998 Table of Contents Holding on to Yellowstone's Grizzlies: A Parting 2 Chat with a 24-year Veteran of Yellowstone's Grizzly Bear Wars From the closure of garbage dumps to the recent expansion of bears throughout greater Yellowstone, one scientist was at the helm studying the threatened creatures throughout an array of controversies. Interview with Richard R. Knight Hidden Biodiversity: The Benefits of Large 10 Rotting Carcasses to Beetles and Other Species Rooting around in the detritus of the Lamar Valley, an entomologist probes the largest order of life on Earth and reminds us that vertebrate grazers, predators, and scavengers are only the tip of the iceberg in a complex ecological community. by Derek S. Sikes Editor Yellowstone's River Otters: Enigmatic Water 15 Sue Consolo-Murphy Art Director Weasels Renee Evanoff A biologist captures information about these little-studied animals-on film, and in a report that documents his observations of these elusive Associate Editor riverine residents of the riparian zone. Sarah Broadbent by Nathan Varley Assistant Editor Mary Ann Franke News and Notes 19 Printing • Draft Report Released on Brucellosis Science• Wolf Population Artcraft Inc. Growing • Cascade Geyser Rejuvenates • IGBST Gets New Leader • Bozeman, Montana Celebrating "People and Place" • Park Staff Test GPS Accuracy • Archeological Research Reveals New Information On the cover: Otter pup. See re lated story on page 15. Photo cour tesy Nathan Varley/Landis Wildlife Films. Above: Archeologicalfield work in Yellowstone. See page 20. Photo courtesy Mack Shortt. , , -?'_-;;· ~ '"-\.,, ,. V • ' \/,. r· ~ ,, ' " , J .t ""' ., ~ie~J, 4Jiiij mfSt~n'cifassociation lf.,ith DiCk 9nd his studj ~' pight, either~ J•-' :: .in•Wyoming an2K"din ,;;na,·_1{team. • ! So,j_di!n'thearfro)llhimuntilprob~, f h h v d ~• '" •i+* . "' ,- ., bl A m,• & d h "ll d d :·~ _w e'j e_~arne ... f :""l'.!!sa ~r~:.~ ..B>'i¾ ·" a~~ tu6 u~t~l11 e~a e meup~ i degre~.rc,}n.wrffil[Je l!f'logy. A e'!._'?!:· YS:,!J'.<:>w did~ get start~d studymg [s,qd] "Gladys and I were wondermg '. ing 1,1 _Bh.D. stud¥f'!,tlVfontand's Sulrbearii•·,/f:•.· . where we'd like to go for Labor ': :""Riv~®elther4,'1.fJjiis teaching at the,'•"DK: · }1, ,1as tired of teaching. I Day ... and she says, I'd like to go over ' University of'liJ1ff!ho when he., was'lured wante -to get ack in the field. I had a lot and visitthe Knights in Moscow, Idaho." "" ,e;e~ 'sJ:i! "'?, • a qp,,.· . , • it • away. F[e becarri.e'tlie'first-and until his ·•of·contact with bears when I was in the I said, "Well, the steelhead fishing's good, retirement in Sepiembe; 1997, the ;nly- Bob ~arshall Wilderness Area in Mon- come over." And I turned to my wife and head of the Interagency Grizzly Bear tana. I was slated to do a grizzly bear said "Something's wrong in Yellowstone Study Team (!GEST), created in the af- study up there, after I was done studying Park, because Glen never goes anyplace termath of a stormy parting between elk and sheep and deer; we never got for pleasure; there's something up." The Yellowstone National Park and brothers around to it. grizzly bear job was coming open, and Frank and John Craighead, who studied I first started working for Glen Cole Glen came over and said, "We've got this grizzly bears in the parkfrom 1959 until [supervisory research biologist for position, and I want you to apply for it." 1969. Dr. Knight has published numer- Yellowstone National Park from 1969 to YS: Did you see changing from water ous papers on the grizzly bears of _1975] in Montana, so we're old friends. fowl and ungulates to bears as a career Yellowstone and advised managers When I was in Idaho I kept bringing field shift, or as fish biologists would when through thorny controversies since the trips to Yellowstone every year, and I'd movingfromgraylingtotrout?Wereyou population was listed as "threatened" have dinner with Glen and Gladys and aware of how controversial it was? under the Endangered Species Act in we'd talk about old times. We had an ar- DK: It's just a different animal to work 1975. He was interviewed for gument in spring 1972, something to do on. If I had known what the next five Yellowstone Science in August of 1997 with natural regulation, and some as- years were going to be like, I'd still be by the editor and John Varley, Director sumptions that he was making that I running the other way! I'd been through of Yellowstone's Center for Resources, didn't think he could make. He just got a lot of controversies and stuff... but the both of whom have had a long profes- mad-I didn't get invited to dinner that feds-people stab you in the back for 2 Yellowstone Science (NAS) review ofthe grizzly bear data.] the Forest Service, all we got was office DK: This was before that started in 1974; space. And when Steve Judd left the Fish I'd been here a while. We'd have these and Wildlife Service, they took his money meetings, of a steering committee which to hire Chris Servheen, [as Grizzly Bear was like the IGBC [the present day 1n Recovery Coordinator]. Fish and Wild teragency Grizzly Bear Committee, made life Service kept giving us $25,000 a year up ofsenior agency managers]; it had six for quite a while, but a couple years ago agencies, and I had advice like you they gave that up because they didn't have couldn't believe. I had Starker Leopold the money. and Durward Allen putting in their two YS: Was it your idea or someone else's cents worth; you had to take their that stationed you in Bozeman, associ thoughts seriously. These people had ated with the Montana State University great ideas on what to do-I've got a list campus, a bit removed from Yellowstone ofthem someplace-it's about a foot long and the other land managers? of things to look at, with $47,000 in the DK: You know how that happened? At budget! the International Association of Fish and YS: Did that include your salary? Game Commissioners in 1974, they de DK: Yep! So I just went ahead and de cided to have a committee on grizzly cided what to do. Ofcourse, we couldn't bears. They said they didn't see how Dick Dick Knight setting a bear trap. Photo do much since we weren't allowed to tag Knight could be objective, since he was courtesy Bonnie Blanchard.