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The grizzly bear habitat (here in the Central Rockies Ecosystem of Canada) depends on flourishing wildlife of plant and animal sources. The grizzly bears aren’t fond of humans and will travel to where there is an abundance of their required seasonal food sources - usually. To sustain a grizzly bear habitat it must too include a very large amount space for their sizable appetites and cover for their protection.

In late March/April, grizzly bears come out from their den and are ready to forage for food. At this time the grizzly bear habitat will be supplied with food of carcasses such that of elk, moose and other hoofed animals. Carcasses can be found at some dangerous locales such as roadsides and railway tracks, as well as at the base of avalanches where animals may have been swept down to their deaths.
Early spring feeding in the grizzly bear habitat includes foods found mostly at…

low elevations and south facing slopes. Foods will include fresh new grass shoots, the “bear root”: Hedysarum plant, and berries that are still present after winter offering the grizzly bear a “spoonful of sugar”. Meaning they have a high sugar content.

The grizzly bear habitat during May and early June offers food for the grizzly bear mostly in levees, river valleys, streams and riverbeds. Here the grizzly bear will consume large amounts of “horsetail” – a primitive plant, supplying the bear with a high dose of protein. Grizzly bears may also be found hunting moose calves and elk as well as feed off of large game carcasses.
Come late June, the grizzly bear habitat must flourish with the slower growing vegetation found in the low-lying areas. Common grasses and horsetails are now too fibrous and lack nutrition. Grizzly bears will also travel to high elevations, avalanche slopes, high small streams and groundwater seepage areas to find a diverse meal of grasses. Some grasses to mention are the Cow Parsnip, Valerian, Spring Beauty and the Glacier lily.

Now the month of August finds grizzly bears dieting more so on berries – and lots of them. The grizzly bear habitat will have to endure the provision of up to 200,000 (or more) berries per day (24hrs) per bear. Luckily there isn’t just one type of berry. There are the buffaloberries (the main one) found in valley bottoms with well drained soils, namely the Lodgepole Pine forests whose canopies are relatively wide open. There are also the huckleberries and blueberries found in September, west of the Continental Divide or areas that are close to it. Once frost hits, the grizzly bear habitat will have berries left on tree branches. Those would be the crowberry, mountain ash berry and the low bush cranberry.

September also finds the grizzly bear hunting/digging for the “ground squirrel”. They are slow and fat by then and the grizzly bear will go to great lengths to dig for them leaving holes that can be described as large trench-like ditches. Squirrels offer the bear minerals and proteins. During this late season, the grizzly bear habitat will require a supply of supplemental food, namely the hedysarum root and nuts from the whitebark pine tree.

I’ve put this writing also within the ecosystem section of EditGreen.com because of the shrinking grizzly bear habitat. Grizzly bears by nature do prefer to live alone. Their habitat is slowly being overcome by humans and therefore their ecosystem is being inhabited by whom they like to avoid altogether and with it comes pollution and environmental friction of many forms.

The last mention of foods for the grizzly bear habitat is the junk food – human garbage. I don’t think I need to go into too much detail about this. For the record though, if grizzly bears become dependant on it, it poses a threat to both man and beast. Lets try and do right by them. Put our garbage where it belongs and refrain from littering in our forests and mountains.

Peace.