Illegal kills dominate grizzly deaths

Fish and Wildlife Service to increase rewards

The highest number of illegal kills in seven years accounted for nearly half the 24 grizzly bear deaths so far this year in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem.

The 2005 tally of 11 illegal kills represents a continuing increase in the number of grizzly bears that are misidentified by hunters or simply shot by poachers, said Chris Servheen, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services grizzly bear recovery coordinator.

The biggest problem is this illegal mortality, Servheen said, adding that his office will soon announce a substantial increase in the reward available for people who provide information leading to the arrest of those responsible for illegal kills.

We are on the verge of going out with a big reward for illegal kills, he said. This illegal mortality is something that is very serious.

Servheen provided a detailed accounting of 2005 mortality statistics this week in Kalispell to a panel of state and federal officials in charge of grizzly bear recovery in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem an area that includes Glacier National Park, the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex and surrounding lands.

Servheen said this years total of known human-caused bear deaths includes the 11 that were illegally killed; seven that were destroyed by bear managers because of conflicts with people; four that died due to management handling; one killed in self-defense and one killed by a car.

Twelve of the bears died on U.S. Forest Service lands, six on private lands, three on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and three on the Flathead Indian Reservation.

Ten of the bears were female and eight of those were adults. Servheen said that is very disturbing, because the trend of the population is very directly correlated to the number of adult females.

Eight bears were males and the genders of six are unknown because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service often cannot account for the genders of badly decomposed bears or missing cubs. A female grizzly bear that died after being handled by bear managers on the Flathead Reservation, for instance, had two cubs that were never relocated. The two cubs are considered dead because of a very low probability of them surviving without their mother, Servheen said.

The handling deaths, which include an adult bear captured in the North Fork of the Flathead, have been thoroughly investigated and it appears that bear management specialists followed all protocols for drugging and handling the animals.

The illegal kills raise the greatest concern, Servheen said.

This illegal mortality is going up and we are deeply concerned that they are occurring, because we certainly dont know about them all, he said.

Servheen considers the locations of the known bear mortalities, and once again roaded rural areas, mostly in valleys, are where most bears die. This year it was 14 of the 24. Seven carcasses were recovered within a mile of roads on Forest Service lands, and two bears were found more than a mile from a road.

But Servheen said there is a reporting bias in the locations because the government is well aware of management mortalities, but there is reason to believe there are more deaths that occur away from roads.

We know we only know of a small percentage of illegal kills, he said. Certainly more bears die in Forest Service roaded areas, and away from roads, than we know about.

Last years mortality count was reported as 31 bears, but that was increased to 34 bears because of one female grizzly that was relocated from the Trego area to the Whitefish area last year with three cubs. The bear was later located, without her cubs, so those three female cubs were included in the count.

The 2004 count, the highest since grizzly bears were listed as a threatened species, included 16 management removals. This years lower count of seven management removals can partly be attributed to the removal of so many problem bears last year, Servheen said.

Servheen is critical of this years only self-defense incident, which involved hunters who had killed a mule deer in the Scapegoat Wilderness.

These guys shot a mule deer, left it, came back the next day and found a bear on it, he said. They left and came back the next day, and were charged by a grizzly bear and shot it in self-defense. Why were they back in there if they knew there was a bear on this kill?

They had no business being there because they knew this bear was in possession of a carcass, he said, adding that rather than going back, the hunters could have reported the incident to get a new deer tag from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com