Grizzly bears were mysteriously missing toes. These scientists cracked the case

The answer is they’re getting caught in traps meant for smaller animals.

Seems like the title should be rewritten from cocksure to something informative: "Grizzly bears missing toes due to traps for smaller animals"?

Agreed, since, according to the article they have not shown that, nor explained the linear breaks.

I used summate.it to summarize the article, and the answer is the same as yours. Pretty amazing.

> So far, he added, no new bears have come in with missing toes.

Makes me feel happier. I work closely with animal conservation since last decade. Traps are seldom essential in E Asia. I can understand some are used in N America for game, or herd protection. It often ends up with lot of other collateral.

Iberian lynxes had a similar problem in the 80's