Young griz heads for new home

A young female grizzly bear that was captured in the Whitefish Range on Wednesday will be the third bear in four years to be relocated today in the Cabinet Mountain Range.

The bear fit criteria established for a program aimed at augmenting the imperiled Cabinet grizzly bear population. Estimated to be 2 1/2 years old, the bear has no history of human conflicts or management incidents.

"We've been very selective about these bears," said Jim Williams, regional wildlife manager for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. "Because people don't want a problem bear in their backyard."

Tim Manley, a state grizzly bear management specialist, said the bear was captured by contract bear manager Heather Reich in the northern Whitefish Range. She notified Manley by satellite phone and the decision was made to move the bear to the Cabinets.

The augmentation program got under way in 2005 with a young female moved to the Spar Lake area in the western Cabinets in 2005. That bear was about 5 years old at the time and was fitted with a radio collar that dropped off as scheduled two years later.

Manley said it is unknown if the bear has had cubs since then.

In 2006, another female grizzly bear, no more than 3 years old, was moved from the Swan Mountain Range to the same area in the west Cabinets, where she remains.

Heather Reich and her husband, Derek, were hired under contract with the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Foundation for grizzly bear trapping, with a focus on finding an augmentation bear. The couple also is contributing to a grizzly bear population trend monitoring study that focuses on female bears, and they are assisting with Manley's bear management work.

So far this year, they've captured eight grizzly bears, most of them males.

"That's what happened last year," Manley said. "They caught quite a few male grizzly bears but they didn't quite capture the right female we needed."

Augmentation was a controversial topic when four grizzly bears first were transplanted to the region from British Columbia between 1990 and 1994.

There was considerable uncertainty about whether transplanted bears could survive and reproduce in their new locations.

But in 2006, a genetic analysis of bear hair collected over a three-year period confirmed that one of the Canadian bears that was transplanted in 1992 not only had cubs, but also that her cubs reproduced.

That revelation bolstered the position of augmentation advocates.

The Fish and Wildlife Service officially estimates there are only 15 grizzly bears in the Cabinet Mountains and another 20 to 30 bears in the Yaak region in the extreme northwest corner of the state. Those populations are considered separate from the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, where the three augmentation bears came from.

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