Rangers shoot 'conditioned' griz

Sow killed, one cub dies after tranquilization; other sent to the Bronx Zoo

By CHRIS PETERSON / Hungry Horse News

Glacier National Park rangers shot and killed a 17-year-old sow grizzly bear with a habit of purposely entering backcountry campgrounds when people were there. In addition, one of her yearling cubs died shortly after it was tranquilized.

The sow, known as the Old Man Lake Bear, was shot by two rangers with rifles Monday afternoon about 300 yards from Old Man Lake Campground in Two Medicine. Rangers were at Pitamakan Pass hiking south toward Old Man Lake when they spotted the sow and her cubs.

The yearlings were darted over an hour later with tranquilizer darts, but one died. CPR was attempted on the affected cub, but it died.

The Old Man Lake Campground was occupied by backpackers during the incident.

The second surviving cub will be transferred to the Bronx Zoo in New York.

The sow had a history of purposely going into campgrounds over the course of several years when people were there, Park officials said. She didn't, however, bite or harm anyone. Her preferred range was between Old Man and Morning Star Lakes in Glacier. The valleys are spectacular bear habitat.

Even so, her behavior presented "unacceptable threat to health and human safety and therefore needed to be removed from the Park," said Superintendent Chas Cartwright.

Still, the move to destroy her has brought considerable criticism from outside the Park and internal debate within its ranks, though no Park personnel would speak on the record.

Brian Peck, of the non-profit Great Bear Foundation, said the Park has an exemplary record of dealing with problem bears, but in this case, he thought the sow should get a second chance.

"I'm concerned that if we get wrapped up in risk management, we forget about resource management," he said Monday.

Peck said the Park should have at least attempted another round of aversive conditioning — a method of hazing bears using dogs and other techniques that teaches them to stay away from people. He noted that previous attempts on the same bear had been successful.

The decision didn't come easily to Park staff, however. Jack Potter, Glacier's chief of science and resource management, called the decision "gut wrenching."

But he also noted the sow and her cubs would purposefully come into campgrounds that were occupied by people. In fact, the bear, when it saw Park rangers in a campground recently approached the area. The bear has also sniffed occupied tents and her cubs have come within a few feet of people. Other bears that rangers saw in the same area reacted by moving away from people, not toward them, Potter noted.

The same bear showed similar behavior in the Morning Star and Old Man Lake campgrounds dating back to at least 2004.

In 2005, the Park did aversive conditioning on the bears, contracting out services with the Wind River Bear Institute.

The bear was caught and collared, and she and her cubs were subject to aversive conditioning using Karelian bear dogs. The dogs are small, tenacious dogs that bark and bite at bears.

The conditioning continued again in 2006. In 2007 and 2008, the bear stayed out of trouble, and Old Man and Morning Star campgrounds reopened.

This year, after the sow had cubs, she once again began going into campgrounds.

Potter said it's likely the sow, over the years, has been getting into food.

"I couldn't understand why she needs to be where people are," he said. Snagging food from campers, whether they reported it or not, would seem an obvious reason. However, the Park hasn't had any problems with her previous cubs showing the same behavior, he said. Though there was concern the current cubs could pick up similar behaviors.

"Given the possibility that her offspring had learned this type of behavior and the diminished chance of their survival, we simply could not leave the yearlings in the wild. We deeply regret the loss of one cub, but are thankful that the other yearling will soon be transported to the Bronx Zoo," Cartwright said.