Bears still keep warden busy
Phil Hebert photo<br>Phil Hebert photographed this black bear Saturday in his yard on Montana 206 near the Silver Bullet Bar. Hebert laughingly called the bear "the terror of the Silver Bullet." The bear was captured Sunday and is headed for a Helena wildlife shelter.
The Daily Inter Lake
A busy fall for bear managers has continued into late November, with plenty of bears straggling their way toward hibernation.
A busy fall for bear managers has continued into late November, with plenty of bears straggling their way toward hibernation.
The latest was a black bear cub captured Sunday afternoon near the Silver Bullet Bar on Montana 206 south of Columbia Falls, according to Eric Wenum, a state wildlife conflict specialist.
The cinnamon-colored black bear, thought to be a grizzly by many people who saw it, will be delivered today to the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Wild Animal Shelter in Helena, Wenum said.
The bear had been reported many times along Montana 206, and Wenum had a culvert trap set for the bear for five days with no results.
"It was probably trying to den up under the Silver Bullet Bar's deck, and it had been bouncing back and forth across the highway getting into apples," Wenum said.
The bear will hibernate in captivity; in February it will be transferred to a makeshift den in the wild, along with 23 other cubs that have been captured in the last few months after being orphaned or separated from their mothers.
"I'm expecting it will be a busy winter denning project," Wenum said. "It's nowhere near what we had in '98, when we had 36 cubs. But it's definitely my second-highest year. The norm is about a dozen bears."
Most bears are typically entering hibernation by late November, but this year there continues to be considerable bear activity that is keeping Wenum busy.
A lack of snow and a poor food year have played a part in bears remaining active and looking for additional calories to carry them through winter.
"It slowed down significantly, but I still have quite a bit of bear activity out there," said Wenum, who is now trying to capture two bears near Whitefish and two more in the Columbia Heights area.