Meadow Excavator (Grizzly bear) 

Did You Know? Grizzly bears have super digging powers. In the summer, grizzlies are often seen churning up meadows, looking for food like glacier lily bulbs and ground squirrels. Bears are omnivores, which means they eat both plans and meat. You might be surprised to learn that in Glacier National Park, most of a grizzly bear’s diet is plants, especially berries. During the winter months, when food is nearly nonexistent, bears will hibernate, living off fat reserves.

Grizzly bears depend on high energy foods to get them through their long hibernation in winter. The meadows the grizzly bears depend on to find their yummy plants and roots are being filled in with trees. It seems that the warmer the climate gets, the more trees that can move into the meadows. Also, foods like whitebark pine nuts help the bears to build up enough fat to hibernate through the winter. These pine nuts have all but disappeared in Glacier because of a disease called white pine blister rust that is killing the whitebark pine trees. Bears have to find other foods to replace the nutritious pine nuts they used to depend on. Protected places like Glacier National Park provide a diversity of food sources for these super excavators.

Mountain Explorer (Wolverine) 

Did You Know? Wolverines are super explorers. They routinely travel hundreds of miles a week through some of the most remote regions of the park. As they explore their territory and look for food, even the high peaks like Mt. Cleveland are no obstacle. One male wolverine climbed 5,000 feet in 90 minutes on his way up and over the summer. 

Researchers in Glacier National Park have found that the deep snow covers up their burrows where they have their babies in the middle of winter. The air trapped in the snow makes it act like a blanket over the cold ground, keeping their burrows cozy for their young. Wolverines may suffer if they cannot find enough places with deep snow that they can burrow underground into to have shelter for their families. Right now, protected places like Glacier National Park provide important strongholds for these super explorers.