August 18, 1998 Missoula article reports: Bold bears keep wardens busy By MICHAEL JAMISON of the Missoulian
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Preview of coming attractions for the Bitterroot Valley and its 34,000+ plus residents, Courtesy of the United States Fish & Wildlife Service, a governmental organization that has been captured by environmental interest groups.
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KALISPELL - It's been a very bear-y year in the Flathead, in part because it hasn't been a very berry year.
That's the word from the Region I office of the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, where bear managers spent yet another weekend chasing bold bruins from back yards. The busy weekend, they say, had much to do with a continued poor huckleberry crop, forcing bears to forage elsewhere for food.
A grizzly bear west of Whitefish found a meal in a duck pen, and another one south of Bigfork gobbled some turkeys. Both were captured early in the weekend.
Meanwhile, a black bear was captured outside West Glacier, and a trap was set for another at a KOA campground north of Kalispell.
When they weren't setting or unloading traps, bear managers continued to monitor a grizzly roaming runs at The Big Mountain ski resort near Whitefish, along with other bears to the north, south, east and west.
On Friday, FWP officials captured a 8- to 10-year-old grizzly near Olney, where it had killed two penned ducks. The bear, officials said, was not marked or previously handled by biologists. Game damage specialist Erik Wenum said the 225-pound adult female found the ducks in an unsecured pen. Because the birds were unsecured, he said, the grizzly was not classified as a nuisance bear and was released Saturday with aversive conditioning. The capture and release, said grizzly bear management specialist Tim Manley, was intended to be preemptive, and included bean-bag bullets, rubber bullets, cracker shells and barking Karelian bear dogs.
Manley said the bear "dashed for the hills under the barrage."
The bear was fitted with a radio collar, and FWP is working with the landowner to install electric, "bear- proof' fences around the coop.
After driving the bear back into the woods, Wenum and Manley went to Ferndale, where they captured a 10-year-old male grizzly on Saturday. This bear, they said, had broken a window, climbed into a shed, and feasted on trout and turkey feed.
The 350-pound bear, which previously was marked for research, also killed three turkeys in a pen near the residence. Because the food and birds were "secured," and the incident was close to a residence, the bear was listed as a "nuisance."
Officials said the bear also was west of the Highway 83, outside the grizzly bear recovery area.
According to Manley, the bear historically is monitored through a regional bear study, and normally ranges at higher elevations this time of year.
Manley is especially concerned the bear has learned to seek feed that people use for wild turkeys and deer in the area south of Bigfork.
"This may be a case where these folks who had their feed secured paid the price for people who have been allowing bears to obtain unsecured livestock and wild game feed," he said. "When bears are fed, they develop a taste for the easily obtained food and actively look for it."
On Sunday, Manley made a call to Martin City, where a 135-pound black bear reportedly was harassing folks. Initially, Manley treed the 4- year-old bear, tranquilizing it only after it had come down from its perch.
That bear was relocated Monday along the South Fork of the Flathead River.
In addition to the three bears captured and released over the weekend, Manley and Wenum continue to monitor a grizzly that was eating huckleberries near a hiking trail at The Big Mountain. Four other grizzlies are being monitored along the North Fork of the Flathead, on Glacier Park's western boundary. Elsewhere, two 3-year-old twin grizzlies are being worked with dogs occasionally to keep them away from residences, and a trap was set for a black bear that broke into an unsecured cooler at a KOA campground just north of Kalispell.
Farther south, Wenum is watching a trap set for a grizzly that wandered into residences around Condon.