Record number of grizzlies captured this year
<p>Photo provided by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. This 18-year-old female grizzly was one of two sows with cubs captured in the Elk Park area near Highway 206 and later euthanized.</p>
Six grizzly bears in two family groups were captured in the Elk Park Road area east of Highway 206 in November and removed from the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE), Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks recently reported.
According to FWP grizzly bear management specialist Tim Manley, the bears were removed due to repeated human-bear conflicts and in the interest of human safety. Two adult females were euthanized, and four cubs were transported to the FWP Wildlife Center in Helena for possible placement in zoos.
The first family group included a 5-6 year-old unmarked female with two female cubs of the year. FWP had attempted to capture the three grizzlies for about two months while the bears broke into chicken coops, got into barns for horse feed, and broke into sheds and garages. They also killed several pigs. The three bears were captured on Nov. 16 and 17.
The second family group included an 18-year-old female grizzly and two cubs of the year, one male and one female. Biologists had captured and relocated the same adult female nine times over an 11-year period - twice in 2011. The prior incidents were minor and involved eating apples near houses. This fall, however, she began eating pig feed and later killed a pig. The three bears were captured Nov. 21.
FWP bear managers blame the increasing number of bear-human conflicts for their decision to remove the bears. FWP Region 1 wildlife program manager Jim Williams said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service personnel concurred with the decision.
Biologists recorded 30 bear mortalities in the NCDE this year resulting form bear-human conflicts, up from 20 each of the past two years.
"This is a higher number than average," said Chris Servheen, the grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service.
This year, three grizzlies were killed by trains, one was mistakenly killed by a black bear hunter, four were illegally killed, eight were killed in self-defense and 12 were removed for management decisions. There were two known natural deaths.
"We are entering a new era in grizzly bear management," Williams said. "With a functionally recovered population of grizzly bears, we will continue to experience increased conflicts between bears and humans. As the NCDE grizzly bear population continues to grow, FWP can be more aggressive with removing those females and males that continue to conflict with humans."
About 1,000 grizzly bears currently inhabit the NCDE, and the population continues to grow at about 2-3 percent a year, FWP grizzly bear researcher Rick Mace said.
"Although the recent removals of adult females with cubs are regrettable, these mortalities are well within sustainable mortality limits," Mace said.
Biologists in the NCDE portion of Region 1 captured a record 44 grizzlies in the 2011 field season because of human-bear conflicts, up from an average of 17 per year since 1993. Almost a third of the 44 bears captured in 2011 had killed chickens. Others got into livestock feed, pet food, bird seed and fruit trees, killed livestock or broke into barns, chicken coops, sheds and garages. Some captures were incidental.
Twenty-eight of the captures in 2011 were individual grizzly bears, some of which were captured on multiple occasions. Eleven of those 28 bears were removed from the population, including six that were killed, a subadult male sent to the Grizzly Wolf Discovery Center and the four cubs that may be placed in zoos. The other 17 bears are back in the wild, and most of them are still radio-collared and being monitored.
Most of the grizzly bear conflicts occurred on the east side of the Flathead Valley, along the Swan Mountain front. Others occurred around Coram, Columbia Falls, Whitefish, Blankenship, Essex, Swan Lake, Yellow Bay, Star Meadows, Trego and Eureka.