Bear Foods

Grizzly bears eat a variety of plants at specific stages of growth throughout the year; meat constitutes about 15% of their diet. Bears have about seven months to meet their nutritional requirements for the entire year. They must move up and down in elevation and across the landscape to take advantage of these widely scattered food sources.

Spring & early summer

• Hedysarum roots
• Glacier lily bulbs
• Spring beauty bulbs
• Winter-killed animals
• Grasses and sedges
• Clover and dandelion
• Horsetail (Equisetum)
• Newborn calves of elk, deer or moose
• Cow parsnip

Late summer & fall

• Ants and ant larvae / grubs
• Buffaloberry
• Currant berries
• Blueberry/huckleberry (west of Great Divide)
• Bearberry
• Crowberry
• Grouseberry
• Whitebark pine nuts
• Ground squirrels and marmots
• Deer, mountain goats, sheep or elk
• Hedysarum roots (especially if berry crop fails)

Spring beauty © Parks Canada	Avalanche lily © Parks Canada
Buffaloberry © Parks Canada	Hedysarum © Parks Canada