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David Mattson
- Jan 28, 2016
Let Them Eat Grizzly Cake
According to popular history, Marie Antoinette, Queen of pre-Revolution France, quipped “Let them eat cake” when told that her subjects were starving. The peasants shortly thereafter rendered their verdict on her purported behavior by applying a very sharp blade to the back of her neck. Fast forward to the present, and we have managers of the Yellowstone grizzly bear population offering us their version of “Let them eat cake.” This in response to the recent collapse of some c
Louisa Willcox
- Jan 21, 2016
The Grizzly Miracle of Birth
Right about now, grizzly bear mothers are giving birth to cubs the size of tea cups. The process is nothing short of a miracle. Since time immemorial, we have been fascinated by the ability of bears to disappear into the earth in winter, seemingly die, and reemerge with new life in spring. It may seem strange to discover that the words “bear,” “birth,” “bury” and even “metaphor” all share the same linguistic roots. The Teutonic word ber is short for Old High German and Old En
David Mattson
- Jan 13, 2016
Hunting to Scare Grizzlies?
Kill grizzly bears to make them afraid of humans. This idea has gotten a lot of air time in recent years as one of several justifications for removing endangered species act (ESA) protections for Yellowstone’s grizzlies, most recently in a January 10th editorial by the Editorial Board of the Bozeman Chronicle. Delisting (another term for removing ESA protections) would clear the way for a sport hunt managed by the states of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, which are currently squ
David Mattson
- Jan 7, 2016
The Politspeak of Social Carrying Capacity
As a scholar and social scientist I get really annoyed when concepts are deployed for partisan purposes without regard for intellectual integrity. Having said that, I suspect that most politicians would find my distress silly…which is to be expected of a breed that exists to promote partisan ends using whatever rhetoric serves the immediate purpose. More to the point, politicians specialize in propaganda, one definition of which is: “Official government communications to the
