Grizzly bear shot from helicopter after killing sheep
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Wildlife authorities shot and killed a grizzly bear in Montana on Tuesday for repeatedly killing sheep over the past year as bears continue dispersing onto the plains east of the Rocky Mountains this spring.
“It’s pretty much been nonstop,” Mike Madel, a Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks grizzly bear management specialist, said of grizzly bear observations and conflicts the agency is responding to on the Rocky Mountain Front.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services shot the bear from a helicopter as it was bedded down on the west shore of Lake Frances near Valier, Mont., Madel said. Valier is about 86 miles northwest of Great Falls, Mont.
The decision to remove the bear from the population was made after consultations between Fish, Wildlife and Parks, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services, he said.
On Sunday, the 6 ½-year-old bear, which weighed 352 pounds, killed a number of sheep at a ranch, about 6 miles southeast of Valier, Madel said.
The same bear killed sheep at the same ranch in July.
After the first livestock depredations last year, the female and two cubs were relocated.
They entered Canada along the Belly River but ended up back on the Montana plains after traveling 260 miles.
“It was really amazing,” Madel said of the distance.
State wildlife authorities were able to track the movement of the bears because the female had a radio collar around her neck. By September, she had returned to Montana and hibernated for the winter at 7,300 feet on the Rocky Mountain Front.
The grizzly left the den March 7, which is earlier than usual, and was east of U.S. Highway 89, by March 9.
The yearling cubs were no longer with the female at the time it was shot. The female was most recently observed with a male.
Usually, female grizzly bears are not removed from the population until they have three strikes for getting into conflicts, Madel said.
This bear was removed after two strikes because she returned to the same ranch and killed sheep and also was spending time around farms and ranches located along low-land river bottoms.
“It’s hard to manage the population when you have individual bears like this adult female that repeatedly killed livestock and also are spending a lot of time on creek bottoms where people live,” Madel said.
After the sheep depredations, Mike Hogan with USDA’s Wildlife Services set snares in an attempt to catch the bear.
Authorities agreed they would conduct a management removal if the bear was not caught.
From a helicopter, Craig Glazier, also with Wildlife Services, shot the bear on private land, Madel said. The landowners gave state wildlife authorities permission to access the area so the bear could be loaded and transported to Great Falls.
State bear management officials have been responding to an exceptional number of grizzly bear observations and conflicts this year after bears emerged early from their dens because of the mild winter, Madel said.
Wildlife Services and state Fish, Wildlife and Parks have captured and relocated three bears, Madel said. One bear was shot in self-defense.
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