Park to destroy female griz

Managers say decision was 'gut-wrenching'

After repeated efforts to change the behavior of a habituated grizzly bear over the last few years, Glacier National Park officials have decided to destroy the female and attempt to relocate her two yearling cubs to a zoo.

The decision was made by the park's bear management team after the family group repeatedly entered human-occupied backcountry campgrounds in the Cut Bank Valley this summer. Rangers currently are searching for the bears.

"Unfortunately, this entire family group of grizzly bears has become overly familiar with humans," Glacier Superintendent Chas Cartwright said. "Park resource personnel have worked to keep this bear and her offspring in the wild for five years, but given her recent display of over-familiarity in combination with her long history of habituation, we have determined that the three grizzlies pose an unacceptable threat to human health and safety; and therefore, must be removed from the park."

The 17-year-old female bear's record of trouble goes back to 2005, when she and a prior pair of yearling cubs started visiting the Morning Star and Old Man Lake backcountry campgrounds while they were occupied. That summer, a special superintendent order closed the campgrounds and authorized the use of Karelian bear dogs in the backcountry for extended periods. The female was trapped and fitted with a radio collar, and the park contracted the Wind River Bear Institute to use dogs and a variety of methods to condition the bear and her cubs to avoid people and campgrounds.

The same efforts were pursued in the summer of 2006.

"At the end of 2006, it appeared she was getting the message," said Jon Waller, the park's carnivore biologist, adding that the female's radio collar failed in 2007 and there were no reports or sightings of her until this summer.

Of primary concern, Waller said, is the way the bear and her cubs have made "purposeful" approaches into occupied campgrounds.

"She knew people were there and she marched right into the campgrounds," Waller said.

The presence of cubs, and the potential for the female to defend them, also figured into the decision, Waller said. A decision to remove female bears from the Northern Continental Divide Grizzly Bear recovery area is unusual, because of their importance in sustaining a population that is protected under the Endangered Species Act.

"It was really a gut-wrenching decision," Waller said. "In this particular case, our management team decided that the risk to the public was just too great."

The park's management team has explored the potential for relocating the bears to a zoo, but has found that there are no zoos currently willing to take adult bears.

"Every effort will be made to capture the yearlings and relocate them to the Bronx Zoo in New York," a park release states. "However, at this time the priority is to locate and remove the female."

Glacier has an internationally vetted Bear Management Plan and Guidelines for managing problem bears. The female bear had several documented encounters with humans in the Cut Bank Valley in July that define the bear as being highly conditioned to humans under the park's guidelines.

Over time, the bear and her cubs approached hikers, forcing them off trails, entered campground cooking areas and they have sniffed at occupied tents during the night.

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