Climate Change is Making Grizzly Bears Vegan, Bigger, and Stronger
I, personally, would choose fresh wild salmon over berries any day of the week. But apparently, Alaskan grizzly bears don’t feel the same way. In fact, due to climate change, the bears have switched their diet from mostly salmon to mostly berries. It’s making the bears bigger, stronger, and in some areas possibly more angry as they compete for food.
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences recently published a study documenting the interactions between Kodiak brown bears (grizzlies) and salmon. Their goal was to document how climate change and warmer weather affects the bear’s diet and the general eco system.
These bears’ diets typically consist of two primary foods: salmon and elderberries. In the spring and early warm season, bears feed on salmon since there’s usually an abundance due to the salmons’ migration patterns. Later in the summer, the bears switch to eating elderberries when there’s less salmon available.
But a warming climate in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest is completely changing this. There isn’t less salmon, but the warmer summers are causing the elderberries to bloom and ripen earlier.
When the grizzlies are faced with a choice between salmon and elderberries, they choose berries every time.
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“It’s essentially like if breakfast and lunch were served at the same time and then there is nothing to eat until dinner,” biologist and lead author of the study William Deacy said. “You have to choose between breakfast and lunch because you can only eat so much at a time.”
So why do they love the berries so much? Don’t salmon have more protein and fat? Yes, and that’s exactly why they love the elderberries. Salmon is about 85% protein which actually takes more energy to digest and break-down. Elderberries, on the other hand, are about 13% protein and have a much better nutrient profile.
Scientists say 17% protein is optimal for grizzly growth. So by feasting on berries instead of salmon, the bears can grow larger and stronger more quickly. Scary, huh? I know, I hate to give points to the pro-vegan camp.
Experts don’t think this vegan switch will cause any major problems for the bears in Alaska where they have lots of food to choose. But in areas like Washington and Oregon where bears are already scrambling for food, this could potentially get dangerous. So if you live in the Pacific Northwest, be prepared for bigger and stronger bears who are very hungry and stressed-out. The rest of us can sit back and enjoy an abundance of wild caught salmon. Isn’t climate change great?! (Minus the hurricanes and deteriorating planet, of course.)
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Randi Nord lives in Pontiac, Michigan. She is the co-founder of Geopolitics Alert Independent World News.