Grizzly bear pair trapped, relocated

State wildlife managers have had their first grizzly bear roundup of the year, capturing and relocating a female and a cub that had been getting into garbage in the Swan Range foothills.

The 8-year-old female was captured on private land near Peters Ridge Road on April 14, according to a news release from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Remote cameras detected that the bear had been accompanied by a yearling.

As a result, the female was held in a "family trap" designed to lure in the yearling, which was captured on April 16.

The two bears were released northeast of Mud Lake along the Jewel Basin Road the next day by Tim Manley, a grizzly bear management specialist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

The female bear had not been captured before. She was fitted with a global-positioning-system satellite collar and will be monitored.

Manley noted that the public should expect bears to be roaming about, and to secure bird feeders, garbage or other food sources that might attract bears.

He conducted a radio telemetry flight on April 17, finding that half of the collared grizzly bears that he monitors are out of their dens.