How long will it take to achieve a healthy grizzly bear population in the North Cascades?
It will take many decades before the North Cascades has a healthy grizzly bear population. Grizzly bears are slow to increase in numbers because of their reproductive biology – they are the second slowest reproducing land animal in North America, second only to the musk ox. Females are usually 5-6 years old when they have their first litter and then have an average of two cubs about every 3 years. Not all of these cubs survive to maturity. A typical female grizzly bear will have 5 cubs that survive to adulthood in her life which may be about 20-25 years. Growth of the North Cascades grizzly bear population, under the best conditions, is expected to be very slow.
