Famous bear still hanging around den; grizzlies roaming near town
Sharon Chubb, who lives off Witty Lane north of Columbia Falls had grizzly bear tracks in her yard recently.
A black bear that’s become an international sensation continues to hang around its home high in a cottonwood tree in Glacier National Park.
The black bear is denned up in a hole in the tree about 100 feet above the ground. Glacier Park personnel first noticed the bear on March 23.
The Park first put up a webcam of the bear about a week later and then added a live YouTube stream of the bruin. Twenty days later, the bear was still hanging around and in its den.
Since then, major media outlets have reported on the bear, including USA Today and the Washington Post, just to name a few.
The bearcam and streaming video are one of the most popular web pages on the Park Service’s entire Internet presence.
As of presstime, the bear was poking its head out of the hole in the tree. Park officials have said the bear is likely a male — no cubs have been seen. One of the most popular segments was of the bear crawling out of the hole to defecate outside the den. It got 53,000 views on Facebook and 860 shares.
This isn’t the only local bear sighted recently.
Sharon Chubb, who lives off Witty Lane north of Columbia Falls sent the Hungry Horse News photos of grizzly bear tracks in her yard this week in the snow. The bear walked right past one of her cabins. Chubb said she makes sure her garbage isn’t left out — they’ve had grizzly bears roam through their wooded property before.
While last week was cold and snowy, bears are out and about. Biologists ask folks to bring in bird feeders, make sure garbage is secured in a garage or bear-resistant container and when in the field, it’s a good idea to carry bear spray.