Bear country: Stay calm and use bear spray

The story about a Ferndale man who killed three grizzly bears last year with a .22-caliber rifle left many backcountry veterans scratching their heads. That’s not much firepower.

Sean Albrite, a firearms salesman at Snappy Sport Senter recommends — “to give you a fighting chance” — a 10 mm automatic handgun, a .44 Magnum revolver, a 12-gauge shotgun or a .45-70 rifle. But a better alternative exists, he said.

“Without a doubt, bear spray is the best defense against a bear,” Albrite said.

Albrite also pointed out that shooting a grizzly bear with a small-caliber weapon would be “animal cruelty at its worst” if the animal was injured and died in pain sometime later.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks bear manager Tim Manley said he knows of cases where grizzly bears were killed with a .22-caliber weapon.

“A lot of people are surprised by the fact that we’ve had several bears over the years that have been killed by small-caliber guns,” he said. “We’ve had other people in the past that have shot a .22 toward the ground, thinking they were going to scare away the bear, and actually have it ricochet off the ground and hit the bear. Several years ago, one hit a bear in the stomach and it died.”

Dan Calvert Wallen was found guilty on March 30 of three counts of unlawfully taking a threatened species. The Ferndale man shot and killed three sub-adult grizzlies that weighed about 150 pounds apiece on May 27, 2014. Circumstances could have been different if he had shot a 700-pound full-grown male with a .22-caliber rifle.

Manley said he would never recommend shooting at bears to scare them away.

“If they’re around your house, make noise,” he said. “Bang pots and pans, yell at them from a safe position, or set off your car alarm with a remote.”

Manley also recommends backcountry travelers carry bear pepper spray with them and know how to use it.

“I tell people to practice with it, know how to take the safety off quickly, and have it accessible — not in your backpack but on a hip or chest holster where you have quick access,” he said.

Bear encounters are common occurrences in Northwest Montana and should be handled as calmly as possible.

“I tell people to have respect for them, but bears aren’t looking to go and attack people,” Manley said. “My experience is that given the chance, they will leave. They don’t want to have to deal with people.”

For the Flathead Valley, the problem is residents leaving out garbage or food, bird feeders, fruit trees and chickens.

“It’s gotten really popular in the last 10 years, and now bears have figured out chicken feed and chickens,” Manley said. “Bears are good one-time learners, so once they learn something, they remember. Prevention is such a big part of it. So as long as the bears don’t start learning bad habits, we don’t have to remove them.”

FWP provides information online about electric fences for chicken coops, and Defenders of Wildlife will provide a 50 percent match for qualified landowners who want to put up an electric fence.

Manley points out that laws exist to protect endangered species from people with guns.

“In the case of grizzly bears, the only time you can shoot ... is in defense of your life or someone else’s,” he said. “You can’t just shoot because it’s in your backyard and killing your chickens.”

For more information on grizzly bears, visit online at http://fwp.mt.gov and click on “Be Bear Aware.” To report a bear problem, call Manley at 250-1265 or call 911. For more information on assistance for electric fencing, call Russ Talmo at 728-8800 or e-mail rtalmo@defenders.org.