Tom Miner Basin is well known for the grizzly bears that can be observed throughout the land. Over the last decade the number of grizzly bears populating the area have been steadily increasing. The reasoning for these beautiful creatures seeking out the area is related to a calorie-rich root named caraway. With an abundance of caraway buried throughout the basin, surges of grizzly bears have come to dig up and eat them. When grizzlies are in the process of digging up this non-native plant, it disperses the seeds onto the fertile ground allowing these plants to come back again and again every year. 

Because of this drastic growth within the population, it has also caused an increase in tourists coming to visit the region. Observers are most likely to find the bears of Tom Miner Basin in the seasons of late summer and fall, during a time period called “hyperphagia”. This is the period when bears are trying to consume as many calories as possible to prepare for winter hibernation.