One grizzly down, one moved

Wildlife specialists this week put down a grizzly bear with a long history of trouble in the Coram area and relocated a grizzly in Lincoln County to keep it out of trouble.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Wayne Kasworm captured a male grizzly bear that was ranging close to homes in Lincoln County. The bear was fitted with a radio collar and relocated to the Northwest Peaks area in the extreme northwest corner of the state.

Near Coram on Wednesday, state bear management specialist Tim Manley captured an adult female bear. The bear was later put down with assistance from a local veterinarian. Manley also trapped one of the bear's cubs and is trying to capture another cub. Arrangements are being made to send both cubs to a zoo, according to a press release from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

The state typically tries to avoid killing female grizzly bears, and that was the case with this bear, which had been

captured five times in the last six years.

It was first captured in August 1999, along with two cubs, at a Coram garbage-collectoin site. The family group was relocated to Anaconda Creek in Glacier National Park, but eventually returned to Coram, getting into a chest freezer on a porch. The cubs were both hit and killed by a train near Coram.

The mother bear was caught a second time in October 1999 at a Coram home after the bear got into trout food stored in a shed.

The bear dropped its radio collar the following year, and between 2001 and 2003, she was suspected as the source of several reports of bears raiding animal feed in the Coram area.

She was captured a third time in May 2004 after getting into garbage at a home in Coram. She was relocated to Spotted Bear but returned to the Coram area within two months. She was captured a fourth time in September 2004 after getting into garbage and eating cat food on a porch in Coram.

The bear was once again relocated to the Spotted Bear area, and the following spring she dropped her radio collar south of West Glacier.

In August, there was a report of a grizzly bear with two cubs breaking into a barn outside Martin City to get cat food and grain. In September there were reports of a bear breaking into another barn as well as a freezer inside an open shed near Coram. Traps were set, but the culprits weren't captured.

The bear was caught the fifth and final time after breaking into a tack shed to eat horse feed early this week.

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