April 3, 1999 Missoulian article: Grizzly that wanted people's things: killed By SHERRY DEVLIN
Mack Long, regional supervisor for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks in Missoula, said the 375-pound bear was put down after attempts to place it in a zoo failed
"We ran nationwide on the bear network and didn't get any takers," Long said. "It's all but impossible anymore to place a bear. The zoos are all full."
State and federal wildlife officers first captured the grizzly last July, also in the Lincoln area. The bear was relocated, but returned to town within two weeks and was spotted eating pet food and garbage.
By winter, though, the grizzly had wandered into the Ovando area, where it denned. It returned to Lincoln around March 20, and three days later was in town.
By then, Long said, "the bear was definitely habituated to people."
The grizzly found a dead calf in a field just outside of Lincoln, then killed two other calves late on March 26 or early on the morning of the next day, according to Long. Snares were set and the grizzly was captured on Monday.
Under guidelines of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, a sub adult male that gets into trouble twice is killed - unless it can be placed in a zoo. Long brought the grizzly to Missoula and tried - for most of three days - to find a zoo. It wasn't possible, he said. The grizzly was killed on Thursday.
"The bottom line is, last year we had more than 1,300 bear complaints in Region Two," Long said Friday.
There was "a complete loss of food last year and bears went into hibernation hungry," he said. "Now they're back out a little early. They are going to be searching for whatever they can find. This bear was getting into calves. I don't know how you can prevent that. But you can prevent bears from getting into people stuff."