FWP euthanizes two male grizzlies after livestock depredation near Stanford

Karl Puckett
Great Falls Tribune

 

FWP staff attend to a sub-adult male grizzly bear captured over the weekend near Stanford after it had killed four calves.

Two subadult male grizzly bears were euthanized by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Monday morning for preying on livestock west of Stanford. 

The two males killed Monday were the farthest east of the Rocky Mountain Front than any grizzly bear has been seen in more than a century, FWP said.

Stanford is 60 miles southeast of Great Falls.

The same two bears, who were siblings, had been seen south of the Missouri River east of Great Falls several times during the past few weeks.

The bears killed four calves late Friday night or early Saturday morning near Stanford, FWP said.

This was the first time the two bears had killed livestock. 

When the depredation was reported, FWP and U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services responded in a joint effort to capture the bears.

One bear was caught in a snare. The other bear was darted in the open field. Both were handed over to FWP, which then proposed euthanizing the bears to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is the federal agency with oversight responsibilities for grizzly bears. 

The two bears are part of the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem population, which is more than 1,000 bears and remains listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently announced that grizzlies and the Yellowstone National Park area, which number about 600, had reached recovery goals, and that protections would be removed this year. 

Delisting the NCDE population, which FWP also says has reached recovery targets, is not as far along in the delisting process.

Grizzly bears in the NCDE have been moving out from the Rocky Mountain Front and onto the plains west of Great Falls for the last several years, with some bears pushing further east each year.

The bears that were killed were two-and-a-half years-old and weighed a little less than 300 pounds.

As the public reported sightings of the bears over the past few weeks, FWP biologists and wardens visited with landowners and ranchers inquiring about conflicts and advising people on putting away attractants. 

Last Thursday, about 14 miles west of where the bears killed the four calves, FWP biologists set traps trying to capture the bears. That effort was unsuccessful as the two grizzlies pushed further east.