Tag Archives: bear relocation

New Study Shows Risks of Moving Grizzlies

Environmental Issues, News, Science,
Trail camera in the Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem shows a sow grizzly and two cubs at a hair corral site used to collect DNA samples - Wayne Kasworth, USFWS
Trail camera in the Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem shows a sow grizzly and two cubs at a hair corral site used to collect DNA samples – Wayne Kasworth, USFWS

Looks like the success rate for relocating grizzlies is not very encouraging . . .

Moving grizzly bears is no easy task. It’s far better to let them move themselves.

That’s the takeaway from a new study published in The Wildlife Society’s Journal of Wildlife Management. The investigation analyzes 40 years of grizzly translocation events performed in Alberta, Canada. It determines that out of 110 attempts, just 33 translocations—or 30 percent—succeeded.

That conclusion supports some long-established foundations for our work here at Vital Ground. Wildlife managers use translocation both to remove problem bears from an area and to bolster recovering grizzly populations. In either case, the new research demonstrates that relocating bears is far from a cure-all.

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Cabinet-Yaak grizzly recovery slow

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Grizzly bear recovery in the Cabinet-Yaak region is proceeding slowly . . .

Despite the robust recovery of grizzly bears in the forested mountains of Glacier National Park, the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex and the surrounding landscape, the great bear’s future across the region remains far from certain.

The recovery zone spanning the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness, Yaak River basin and areas in between— about one quarter of the size of the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem — has about one 20th of the grizzly population, growing at about half the rate.

The Cabinet-Yaak grizzly bear population contained 45 bears in 2012 when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last conducted a population estimate. Wayne Kasworm, a grizzly bear biologist for the agency, estimates that population at about 50 today, half of the 100-bear recovery target identified after the population’s 1975 listing as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act.

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Grizzly and cubs relocated to North Fork

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More wayward bears got dropped off in the North Fork. In this instance, near Frozen Lake . . .

A grizzly bear and her two cubs are being relocated after killing about 10 sheep near Lake Frances.

The Great Falls Tribune reports the bears will be moved Friday to a site in the North Fork of the Flathead River.

Grizzly bear management biologist, Mike Madel, says the bear family had been spotted near the east shore of Lake Frances, where they killed about 10 sheep.

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Grizzly relocated from Blackfeet Reservation to North Fork

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As mentioned at the recent Inter Local meeting, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks personnel helped relocate a nuisance grizzly to the Whale Creek drainage . . .

A grizzly bear captured on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation after it killed a calf was relocated to the Whale Creek drainage of the North Fork Flathead River.

On July 16, Blackfeet tribal biologists captured the 220-pound, 2-to-3 year-old-male grizzly bear at the site of a calf kill near the Montana and Alberta border.

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It must be spring: several bears relocated

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Another sure sign of spring in this corner of Montana: Wildlife personnel are busy relocating nuisance bears . . .

As bear activity picks up, wildlife personnel recently had to relocate a grizzly bear from south of Eureka into Glacier National Park.

According to Erik Wenum, a bear and lion specialist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, a 6-year-old 340-pound male grizzly bear was captured on April 6 south of Eureka after killing a calf earlier in the week. USDA Wildlife Services personnel assisted in capturing the grizzly…

Wenum says four black bears were captured in the last week in the Columbia Falls and Whitefish areas. This level of activity indicates that while many bears may still be denned or close to their dens some have dropped to lower elevations in search of foods, according to FWP.

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Problem griz from Marias River area given new home on the North Fork

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Another problem griz got a free ride to the North Fork earlier this week . . .

A 4-year-old male grizzly bear has been captured near the lower Marias River and relocated west of Glacier National Park after a family reported lambs and a calf had been killed.

Fish, Wildlife and Parks grizzly bear manager Mike Madel tells the Great Falls Tribune that a family reported last Friday that a couple of lambs had been killed and the next day they found a dead calf. Officials confirmed a grizzly killed the animals.

The 440-pound bear was captured Sunday. Because it had not been captured before, a radio collar was placed on the bear and it was released near the North Fork of the Flathead River.

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Grizzly bear relocated to North Fork

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Montana FWP captured a nuisance grizzly bear near Meadow Lake Golf Course and relocated it to the upper Whale Creek drainage last Wednesday . . .

State wildlife officials caught a 4-year old male grizzly bear earlier this week near the Meadow Lake Golf Course near Columbia Falls.

Grizzly Bear Management Specialist Tim Manley said that the bear had been reported eating apples in residential areas over the past week.

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Griz relocated to Coal Creek meets its end near Whitefish

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Another case of “a fed bear is a dead bear”: The grizzly bear that was relocated to the Coal Creek area in July and soon became a nuisance near Whitefish, has been put down by Montana FWP…

Wildlife officials euthanized a male grizzly bear that was rummaging through food sources near residences outside of Whitefish, the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks announced Thursday.

FWP officials captured the 238-pound subadult male grizzly Wednesday along the Stillwater River, southwest of Whitefish near the KM Ranch Road. The bear had been moved in July from the Lincoln area into the Coal Creek Drainage of the Whitefish Range north of Columbia Falls. Over the course of a month, it crossed the Whitefish Divide and traveled along the Stillwater River between Lupfer Meadows and Lost Creek. FWP said it received numerous reports of the bear getting into livestock feed, pet food, garbage, bird feeders and apples.

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Griz relocated to North Fork a few days ago in trouble again near Whitefish

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That grizzly bear relocated into the North Fork from Lincoln a few days ago has already made its way over the Whitefish Divide and into trouble . . .

A grizzly bear that recently was moved from the Lincoln area to the North Fork Flathead drainage has showed up for trouble again, this time in a neighborhood about 10 miles north of Whitefish off U.S. 93.

The bear, a 2-year-old male weighing 150 pounds, was released in the lower Coal Creek area on July 22, but it managed to cross the Whitefish Divide and move south, turning up at the home of Carol Mystic in the Tamarack Creek area just four days later.

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