June 17, 2000 Missoulian News brief by Sherry Delvin: Grizzly moves into Idaho, is moved again.
CAG Comment
How long is it going to take the federal land and animal management agencies that have been captured by environmental groups like Friends of the Bitterroot [Not to be confused with Friends of the Bitterrooters], Serria Club, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, National Wildlife Federation, Earth Share to name a few of the hundreds of such groups, to discover that when you put grizzly bears in an area that does not have a quality habitat for them they will begin to roam. When they do they will cause human bear conflicts which in turn causes human Endangered Species Act conflicts.
This not healthy for the public and certainly is not healthy for grizzly bears.
End CAG Comment
For the first time since wildlife biologists started watching their every move, a female grizzly bear has moved from the northern Continental Divide ecosystem to the Selkirk Mountains of northern Idaho.
But the 2-year-old female grizzly started frequenting backyard bird feeders north of Bonners Ferry, Idaho.
So it was captured by the Idaho Fish and Game Department this week, and released Thursday in the Whitefish Range just south of British Columbia.
Tim Manley, a grizzly bear management specialist for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said that -while young - the bear already has quite a history with humans.
The animal was originally captured as a cub in the Ferndale area of northwestern Montana, and was relocated to the Frozen Lakes area near the Montana-British Columbia border.
"I last located this bear in a den in the Whitefish Range this past winter," Manley said. "She dropped her radio collar at that den, and she moved approximately 80 miles due west to northern Idaho this spring."
In the 25 years since grizzly bears were given protection by the Endangered Species Act, female bears have not moved from Montana into Idaho's Selkirk Mountains.
CAG Comment
This should serve as evidence that grizzly bears tend not to stay in areas where there is not a quality habitat.
While the activity of this female grizzly has been monitored you have not been able to monitor the activity of other females that have entered the area and not finding an adequate habitat either moved on or returned to whence the came.
As Dr. Larry Irwing points out the key to successful grizzly bear introduction/reintroduction is quality grizzly bear habatat, even though it may get the grizzly bear shot for his/her trouble.
End CAG Comment
When released Thursday, the grizzly was again fitted with a radio collar, so biologists can see where it wanders next.