A sub-adult male grizzly bear that had been frequenting the Ninemile valley and surrounding area, west of Missoula, was destroyed by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks personnel, seven miles southeast of Superior on Friday morning. July 6.

The bear found human-related food rewards and consumed livestock feeds, compost, grease, table scraps, dog food, bird seed and twice found open dumps containing several truck loads of kitchen garbage. On two occasions the bear raided chicken coops. Although the bear was never threatening to humans, his behavior was not considered normal.

CAG Comment

Bears get in the habit of eating and when they get into an environment that does not provide an adequeate food supply they start looking, not up on in the mountains as the authorities would have you believe, but they move downhill into the lower valleys and that is where the people live with their pets, domestic livestock, etc.

This should give a clue to those that would introduce/reintroduce grizzly bears into environments that are not suitable.  The bears get into trouble and subsequently humans get into trouble with the ill advised Endangered Species Act.

This illustrates, again, the hazards of TOP DOWN MANAGEMENT.  Folks in Washington don't know and don't understand the needs of the environments throughout the USA.  Just because you have a large wilderness area does not assure it is a quality habitat for a particular species.

End CAG Comment

FWP first learned of this bear in the Ninemile valley on June 1 with a report that a bear was frequenting a house and feeding on garbage and dog food. After visiting the site, looking for tracks and looking at photos taken by the homeowner, it was determined to be a grizzly, Unlike black bears, grizzly bears are not common in this area.

Because the Ninemile area does provide excellent grizzly habitat and natural food, the bear was trapped, fitted with a radio tracking collar, and released with aversive conditioning at a high elevation site along the Ninemile Flathead Indian Reservation divide.

Two public meetings were held in the Ninemile to discuss issues related to the future of the bear. The community was divided on what to do with the bear. FWP requested the residents* cooperation on eliminating sources of unnatural attractants and help in monitoring and aversive conditioning.

FWP and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) had monitored the bear*s movements since it was released on June 7. After moving into lower Valley Creek, near Ravalli, the bear moved back into the lower Ninemile and Sixmile drainages by June 17 and remained in the area until June 30. During this time the bear was monitored constantly and adversively conditioned on three occasions. The bear continued to exhibit human food conditioned behavior and was officially classified as a "habituated" grizzly bear under the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee Guidelines. By the end of the month, after the bear entered buildings, walked on porches and killed more chickens, its behavior was considered unacceptable.

By July 5, the bear had moved 30 miles down river from the mouth of Ninemile Creek to the Superior area. Since July I the bear had ripped open a chicken coop, sought out garbage and entered an enclosed porch and approached a woman inside.

Since there are at least i2 to 14 black bears in the Ninemile area that are also conditioned to human related food attractants and a high likelihood that other grizzly bears will move through the area, FWP is committed to work with the residents to reduce or eliminate sources of future human-bear conflicts.