Bear With Me On This One  Once upon a time in the west there
were some ferocious animals known as grizzly bears. They would
rise up on their paws, growl at humans and send most folk
fleeing for their lives. Ah, life has changed, we live in the
world of everyone being friendly and humans who are concerned
not to hurt the feelings of animals. The grizzly bear no longer
hides in the mountains of the wild west. As Jamie Jonkel, who
works with grizzly bears puts it: “we’ve got bears spending
their whole summer eating oats in the field, out there with the
elk and the deer and getting fatter and fatter. They’ve started
really loving the good life, much like the average American.” A
recent census puts the number of grizzly bears at 603 which is
three times the number that were wandering around in the
seventies. Many wildlife experts believe the number is most
probably even higher.  Some claim increased human population is
pushing bears from their native habitat while others blame a
beetle infestation which has killed