Three troublesome grizzlies captured and killed

It was a quiet season until October

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Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks announced Nov. 5 that grizzly bear biologists had captured and killed three grizzly bears since Oct. 28. One bear weighed more than 500 pounds.

Grizzly bear management specialist Tim Manley said the bears had become food-conditioned and caused conflicts resulting in property damage — including killing lots of chickens.

The three bears were euthanized with the assistance of local veterinarians. FWP wildlife manager Jim Williams called the situation unfortunate.

“We typically learn from the bear’s behavior when it is time to remove them,” he said. “There is a threshold at which it’s not safe to release a problem grizzly bear back into the wild. In all three of these cases, the bears had progressed to breaking through structures near occupied residences and/or had a long previous history of conflict with humans. In each case, the problems started with human attractants.”

Manley noted there have been few grizzly bear conflict issues this season until October, but in addition to these three bears, FWP had set traps for troublesome grizzlies in the Farm-to-Market, Blankenship, Columbia Falls and Pinkham Creek areas.

“The best thing that residents living in bear country can do to prevent bear conflicts is to secure attractants such as garbage, pet food, and bird feeders so that bears don’t get food rewards and start looking around homes and buildings for food,” he said. “Chickens and other livestock can be protected with properly installed and maintained electric fencing.”

FWP included the three following reports:

• On Oct. 28, a 3-year-old, 140-pound, female grizzly was captured near Nyack after it broke into a chicken coop to get chicken feed and attempted to get through a porch door to get dog food. Due to the property damage and history, the decision was made to euthanize the bear.

This bear has a long history with FWP. It was captured as a cub in the Coram area in 2010 and relocated along with an adult female and its sibling to the North Fork. The family group, however, returned to the Coram area in spring  2011. The yearling female and its male sibling were captured again and moved to the Spotted Bear drainage fitted with an ear tag transmitter for monitoring.

In spring 2012, the young female was observed in the Spotted Bear horse corrals before any Forest Service personnel were there for the field season. She was captured and fitted with a radio collar.

She spent most of the summer in the Bob Marshall Wilderness but returned in the fall to the Spotted Bear area, hanging around the guest ranches and Forest Service compound looking for spilled horse grain. She denned that winter in the Bob and dropped her radio collar in June.

On Sept. 14, she was recaptured at the Spotted Bear compound following a report of a bear getting into coolers in the back of a pickup truck and climbing through the open window of another truck to get dog biscuits. Bear scat with grain in it was found.

Bear managers opted to give her one more chance and move her to the Whale Creek drainage in the North Fork. Residents in the North Fork were known to secure bear attractants, and there is very little chicken or horse grain there. FWP received no reports of the bear causing any conflicts until she ended up at Nyack Flats.

• The second grizzly that was euthanized was captured in the Glen Lake area near Eureka on Oct. 30. The 6-year-old, 375-pound, male grizzly had killed numerous chickens and broken into structures.

This bear also has a long history with FWP. It was first captured in 2008 as part of a research project in the North Fork drainage of British Columbia. That year, he spent all of his time in southeast British Columbia.

The bear was captured again on Oct. 6 near Glen Lake, where the local game warden was trying to capture two young grizzly bears that had been seen getting on porches and were believed to have also killed chickens.

But the capture of this male was believed to have been incidental. He was fitted with a GPS radio-collared and released in the Whale Creek drainage of the North Fork but returned to the Glen Lake area within a week.

He was recaptured near Glen Lake after several chicken coops were broken into and more than 30 chickens were killed. The GPS data also showed he had spent a lot of time around houses between Trego and Eureka once he returned to the Tobacco Valley.

• The third grizzly bear that was euthanized was captured near Mud Lake, which is east of Echo Lake. The 7-year old, 525 pound male had caused extensive damage to a tack shed used to store horse grain.

The landowner had made a good effort to bear-proof the shed after a bear had tried getting into it 10 years ago, putting steel diamond mesh over a metal door and window. The bear, however, put a hole through the wall, pulled the mesh down and pushed in the metal door.

This bear was originally captured on the Rocky Mountain Front and was relocated in 2010 to the Unawah Creek drainage on the east side of Hungry Horse Reservoir. He dropped his radio collar in Wheeler Creek in 2011.