One of the outstanding attributes of Grand Teton National Park is its wildlife. While the beauty of the park is breathtaking, its wildlife is world-class.

Viewing the park’s natural inhabitants with the Tetons’ grand backdrop creates lifetime memories for millions of visitors each year. The park lies at the heart of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, one of the largest intact, temperate ecosystems on Earth. Here, a remarkable array of species including bighorn sheep, black and grizzly bears, elk, wolves, moose, cougars, bald eagles, pronghorn antelope, peregrine falcons, and trumpeter swans are free to interact with their each other and their environment. However, increasing human pressures, both inside and outside the park, threaten the long-term well being of several wildlife populations, requiring a robust and carefully targeting wildlife research and conservation program in the park.

The Foundation currently supports wildlife key research and management projects in Grand Teton that help protect animal populations. Foundation funding also facilitates the development and implementation of public education programs directed at wildlife conservation awareness.

The park has nearly 1,000 front-country campsites that are mostly 100% full to capacity during the summer months. With increased interactions between visitors and the bears that live in the park, it has become more important than ever for visitors to store their food and other items that attract bears. It only takes one incident with a bear receiving a food reward for them to become conditioned, usually leading to aggressive behavior and the bear’s eventual removal due to human safety concerns. The park and Foundation have mounted an important campaign to make food storage lockers, which make it convenient for visitors to store their food, available to all front-country campers. An increased number of food storage boxes will eliminate the need for multiple campsites to use the same box which can quickly become filled. These extremely durable and long-lasting lockers cost $1,100 each for purchase and mounting.