New Region 1 wildlife manager has tested research background

A biologist who once specialized in grizzly bear diet, Neil Anderson recently took over as the new Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 1 wildlife manager.

Anderson officially began his new job at the Kalispell office on Feb. 9. His predecessor, Jim Williams, is now the regional director.

“I’ve worked with almost all the biologists here in one fashion or another,” Anderson said about his new position. “We’re not enforcing the laws, but we do work with game wardens a lot of the time to develop harvest strategies and season-setting. We have to make sure what we create is enforceable.”

A graduate of Montana State University, Anderson is an expert in Montana’s land predators. He began focusing on grizzly bear diets for his master’s project and worked for 21 years as a technician at FWP’s wildlife laboratory in Bozeman.

“When I started there we did quite a bit of stuff with predators,” he said. “We’d do examinations of mountain lions. I put out the aging guide field assessment for mountain lions.”

Anderson also published a paper on wolverines and conducted research on pneumonia in bighorn sheep, populations of various fur-bearing animals and chronic wasting disease in deer, elk and moose. He said that background will come in handy as he supervises both game and non-game biologists at the Region 1 office.

“Predators are a big issue up here,” he said. “Obviously there are a lot of bears of both species, lions and wolves. Those will offer some unique challenges.”