Marauding grizzly trapped

A grizzly bear that had been killing livestock in the Star Meadow area was captured Saturday and has been moved to the Spotted Bear area in the South Fork Flathead River drainage.

The 4- to 5-year-old male bear killed two pigs, four goats and two llamas at the Star Meadow ranch of Vic Aquino.

“It had been there about a week before we were notified,” according to Tim Manley, grizzly bear management specialist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. “We’re going to work with the landowners to get some electric fencing up.”

Manley said a culvert trap was set Friday and the bear was caught Saturday morning. He moved it to the Spotted Bear area Monday.

About 15 years ago, reports of grizzly bears in the Salish Mountain range west of Whitefish were “fairly rare,” Manley said, but that has since changed.

“We get a fair amount of bear reports up there now,” he said, adding that in recent years he has monitored radio-collared grizzly bears moving west of U.S. 93.

“This is the first real depredations that we’ve had” involving grizzly bears and livestock in the Salish range, Manley said.

About three years ago, he said, a grizzly bear got into chickens on a property in the Logan Creek area.

The Star Meadow bear was the sixth grizzly trapped and relocated in the last two weeks. Other bears were trapped near Lakeside, Martin City and Trail Creek.