High Sierra Topix

Hi MK

The last time I was in DB Basin coming over an un-named pass from Observation
Lakes Basin I saw several bear, and mountain lion prints in the corridor descending
into DB Basin, but did not see either animal while there.

Mountain lion? Now that's a real surprise (to me)...

The bears go up there (probably from Palisade Creek) to hunt frogs in a couple of the remaining frog lakes. Very cool. Also extremely cool about the Mountain Lion tracks -- wonder what they were doing there? About 10 years ago, they were expanding out of Round Valley (north of Bishop) when the deer herd crashed. Several had collars so it was possible to actually track them. That's when a few of them started hunting Bighorn Sheep more aggressively, moving into their high-elevation habitat.

g.

I guess all we need now is a Tiger.. Lions, Tigers and Bears, oh my..

Probably need to sleep in a newfangled carbon-fiber 20lb sleep shelter for that!

G.Durkee: your comments and observations are very comprehensive and interesting.
I never would have thought of bears being in the Dumbbell basin, but why not? I would not think that they would be "camp" bears. It is my understanding that bears have a wide range of territory they cover, so they can stay fed, unless humans screw up and feed them. Then they stick around the food source.
Mountain lions- I think there are many, many lions out there. We just don't see them often, only their scat, and tracks. If there are deer in the Dumbbells, it is logical to assume that lions might be in that area, looking for a venison meal. I never have been up there to the Dumbbell basin, only on the Muir trail. I think I will try and get up there some time.
I think most of those lakes up there have fish.
Does anyone out there know if bears have contributed to the decline of the frogs? I had never heard they ate frogs. Interesting posts....

Its amazing to me how beautiful the pictures are that ya'll submit in these posts. I love richlong8's picture above. Its like I'm there, in the summer, taking it all in...

Our Dumbbell trip was my favorite for a combination of reason. While there I looked around and didn't see any traces of bears. We got there early in the day from Amp. L. This gave me time to look around carefully.

Observation Peak.

richlong8 wrote: Does anyone out there know if bears have contributed to the decline of the frogs? I had never heard they ate frogs. Interesting posts....

Bears did not contribute to the decline of frogs. They eat frogs/tadpoles, but they eat anything. There aren't enough bear to explain amphibian loss. Frog decline is squarely on our human shoulders. But that's a different topic (http://anuranblog.blogspot.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) or viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4033" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I was talking to Roland Knapp (froggie researcher) last winter and he was speculating (note: emphasis on speculating) on the role of frogs in bear's diets. They may have formed a part of their diet -- though only at alpine elevations. The crash of the frog populations in the late 70s and 80s coincided with the introduction of more effective food storage -- lockers by the mid-80s and canisters by the 90s. When that happened, bears couldn't return to frogs as part of their diet. So, the speculation is they lit out for the territory -- Mammoth, Lone Pine, Tahoe. Again, no data exists, but it's really interesting.

Russ is right, though, that it's highly unlikely bears contributed in any way to frog's decline.

Probably worth a PhD thesis for someone, though not sure how they'd track base data.

George

maverick wrote:Hi MK

The last time I was in DB Basin coming over an un-named pass from Observation
Lakes Basin I saw several bear, and mountain lion prints in the corridor descending
into DB Basin, but did not see either animal while there.

Interesting about bears in DB. I didn't think of either, nor notice signs of them while I was there in '93, but I do recall seeing mountain lion prints on the shore of Crabtree No. 3 (higher elevation than DBs at 11300+) in 1996. It was sort of funny because I guy camped there was very scared of bears and asked me to look at some prints and tell him if I thought they were bear prints. They were mountain lion prints. I don't think he found my explanation of the prints very comforting.