FWP euthanizes two bears in the area in the past month

SEELEY LAKE – In the past month, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks euthanized a black bear and grizzly bear in the Seeley Lake area. There is another collared young male grizzly, named Stevi, in the area that has been in trouble in the past. Bear managers ask the public to lock up all attractants to keep the bears out of trouble.

Koppen captured, tagged and relocated the black bear in the Mission Mountains last fall. He said when he released it last fall it was healthy. It returned to the area this spring.

Koppen said he started receiving reports of a tagged blind bear wandering through Seeley Lake running into walls, vehicles and getting into trash.

"It was using its smell. Once it got into town it was getting into garbage and that was a death sentence," said Koppen. "It's not these bears' fault, it is people's."

It only took Koppen three hours to catch the bear in a culvert trap, something he said is not easy to do when a bear has been trapped before. Upon inspection, he could see the bear had a left white eye and the right one was nearly white.

Koppen euthanized the black bear and donated the carcass to Carleen Gonder's Wildlife Field Forensics annual training to be used for the field necropsy demonstration. When Gonder received the bear April 30, she said there was no indication of recent wounding in the face.

The field necropsy demo was led by Jim Wolfe, retired Forensic Consultant with Alaska State Fish & Game and Tony Latham, retired Idaho Game Warden. During the initial exam no external wounds were observed. However, after skinning the head, Latham found around a dozen pellets of Type 5 birdshot in the bear's face and mouth.

Gonder explained that because birdshot spreads out in a cone, when they found birdshot in the face and mouth, the odds of hitting the eyes was very good. Gonder said most of the people at the training believed it was the birdshot that caused the bear to go blind. The field necropsy led to the hypothesis but is not a definitive explanation for blindness.

Regardless if the birdshot was the actual cause of blindness, it is only legal to shot a black bear while defending property or person. Due to the lack of bruising and hemorrhaging and amount of healing associated with the embedded birdshot, Latham and Wolfe believe the face-shot to the bear was not recent.

Gonder said the demonstration highlighted the importance of doing a field necropsy on wildlife.

"Bill had no clue why the bear was going blind at that point," said Gonder. "It was the field necropsy that did indeed [reveal evidence making this a law enforcement issue]."

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The weekend of May 11, FWP bear management specialist James Jonkel said they started getting reports of a black bear that had gotten into an open barn in the Woodworth area and accessed unsecured chicken feed and garbage. Following the first incident, the resident put up an electric fence and installed a game camera. When the bear returned Saturday night, two grizzlies were seen together on the footage – one without and the other with a collar.

Jonkel determined that the reported black bear was actually an uncollared sub-adult male grizzly bear. The collared bear is suspected to be Stevi, a collared grizzly that was relocated from Stevensville and got into garbage this spring on Boy Scout Road but has stayed out of trouble since.

Although the uncollared grizzly returned to the residents and got up on the porch, it eventually left wandering to the neighbor's property. Although the grain was secure in the barn, the bear pushed in the door and had a huge feed on grain.

Jonkel said the bear was exhibiting food-conditioned behavior.  Once bears become conditioned to attractants like grain it is hard to break those behavior patterns, and they often remain in the area, near homes and agricultural and livestock operations, becoming bolder and more aggressive in accessing food.

"When they are displaying that behavior, it is a human safety issue if they are going to try and come in your house you just don't know from there," said Eli Hampson, FWP wildlife conflict specialist.

A culvert trap was set and FWP captured the bear early Sunday morning. FWP made the decision to euthanize it in consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and in accordance with Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee guidelines.

Jonkel said there is an alfalfa field that was just planted in Woodworth.

"If you plant alfalfa you are going to have bears and you are going to have elk," said Jonkel. "I'm pretty sure the reason they came down there was for the alfalfa. In order to feed on alfalfa they get used to cars driving by and people looking at them. Then they start wandering around. This one stumbled onto a bunch of goodies and took the wrong path."

Jonkel said in 2018 they had the highest bear conflict year on record in the Blackfoot. Some of the problems this year are from bears that were taught bad behavior last year, and have returned looking for livestock feed and other attractants.

"We can't remind folks enough," said Hampson. "Just because you haven't had bear issues at your place in the past 20 years, it doesn't mean it can't happen."

FWP is carefully monitoring Stevi. He has traveled as far north as Lake Alva, south to Clearwater Junction and traversed the Game Range and through Seeley Lake.

"We are hoping that he doesn't find himself in a situation where he has easy access to attractants," said Hampson.

There is also a lot of black bear activity in downtown Seeley Lake and on the Double Arrow Ranch where the bears are finding food rewards.

"It is important to keep bear attractants such as garbage, pet and livestock food and chickens, behind electric fences or inside a secure structure," Jonkel said. "If bears are able to find these things easily, then they tend to stay in the area looking for more."