Yosemite National Park is visited by over 3.5 million people every year and has inspired various artists to create their works. I was deeply pleased and honored to receive an award at the opening reception of the “Yosemite Renaissance 35” exhibition at Yosemite Museum. I wanted to contribute something new to the already rich visual landscape of the National Park and give endangered species a voice to protect them from extinction.
National Parks provide habitat for many endangered species and protect sensitive habitat. Human activates have stressed the environment to its limits, leading to draught, wildfires and floods. The world’s wilderness areas are shrinking at a horrific rate of 77%, many species have been already lost and entire ecosystems have been collapsed.
I chose the California Grizzly Bear as an extinct subspecies of the very large North American Brown Bear. It used to be part of the ecosystem in the Central Valley. It was particularly admired for its beauty, size and strength. The grizzly became a symbol for the California state flag. By the early 1900s, only few California grizzlies and little of their prime habitat remained. Grizzlies were killed
in large numbers, because they were perceived as threat to life and property. The last known California grizzly bear was shot outside the Yosemite region in the early 1920s. Fewer than 2,000 grizzly bears exist today and are confined to Idaho, Montana, Washington and Wyoming. They are true American icons, yet they live in a paltry four percent of the lands where they used to roam.
Grizzly bears feel the effects of climate change very strong. They are highly food-focused, and their movements are driven by the availability of seasonal food sources. Lacking the salmon of costal populations, grizzlies rely in some areas on ripening berries for a major food source. But as climates warm, changing temperatures impact the timing of key biological events like flowering and fruiting in plants. Even if the berries ripen only a few weeks earlier, it leads to complex ecosystem dynamics. Grizzlies need the berries for gaining weight that is needed for hibernation. Bears are one of the few species of mammal with “delayed implantation,” where eggs fertilized in the spring can wait for months before the start of pregnancy. The body condition of female bears in the fall is very critical to their reproductive success. If there is a too wide gap between the availability of berries and hibernation, this can threaten the reproductive rates of this vulnerable population.
In contrast, the Black Bear, which can be found in Yosemite National Park today, is more likely to survive climate change due to a combination of their greater adaptability around people and different habitat and food requirements.
The Yosemite Renaissance 35 will be on display at the Yosemite Museum from February 22 through May 3, 2020. Afterwards the exhibition will travel to three other venues: Kings Art Center, Hanford, CA. (June 27th through August 1st); Carnegie Art Center, Turlock, CA. (August 12th through October 4th); and Yosemite Gateway Gallery Row, Oakhurst, CA (October 17th through November 15th).