Eight griz relocated in past two weeks

Bear conflict biologists have captured and relocated eight grizzly bears from the northeast portion of the Flathead Valley in the past two weeks. Three of the grizzly bears were captured north of Columbia Falls and the other five were captured east of Hwy 206. The captured grizzly bears included a female with two cubs of the year, a female with a yearling, two subadult males, and an adult male.

According to Fish Wildlife and Parks grizzly bear management biologist Tim Manley, the bears were captured for a variety of reasons including killing chickens, killing a sheep, getting into pig feed, feeding on fruit, and an incidental capture while trapping for a black bear. All of the bears were relocated to more remote sites including Frozen Lake, Spotted Bear, and the Sullivan Creek drainage. All the adult or solitary bears were fitted with radio collars. One of the cubs and a yearling male were fitted with ear-tag transmitters.

October is typically one of the busiest months for grizzly bear conflicts because most of the summer berries are gone and the bears switch to other foods prior to denning. FWP will continue to respond to both black bear and grizzly bear conflicts until the bears den up. Most of the bears will den during the month of November.

Manley reminds residents to keep attractants unavailable to bears.  Attractants include garbage, pet food, livestock grain, fruit and harvested game animals.

Manley also reminds hunters that it is always better to hang your deer or elk in a garage than outside in a tree if you live in or near the forest. If that is not an option, hang the animal at least 10 feet off the ground. Hunters should process game animals as soon as possible to minimize the potential attraction to bears.

In other grizzly bear news, north of Libby in the remote Yaak valley of northwest Montana, bear conflict biologist Kim Annis captured and relocated a 3 year old male grizzly bear. This bear had never been captured before. The bear had killed some chickens. The bear was fitted with a radio collar and released in the upper Big Creek area of the Kootenai National Forest.