Grizzly caught after run-in with bowhunter

The male sibling of a grizzly bear that crossed Flathead Lake also had westward tendencies. It was recently captured in the Kuhns Wildlife Management Area about 10 miles northwest of Kalispell after a run-in with a bowhunter.

The bowhunter returned to the forested area Monday to track a deer that had been wounded the previous day. The hunter encountered the bear on the deer carcass. When the bear approached him, he yelled, and the bear left.

The hunter reported the incident to Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials, who set a culvert trap as a pre-emptive move for public safety in an area that is only occasionally used by grizzly bears, mostly in the spring and summer.

The bear was captured and fitted with a radio collar before being released on Elk Mountain, a preapproved release site on the Stillwater-Kootenai Divide about 25 miles northwest of the Kuhns Wildlife Management Area.

The male bear weighed 380 pounds and had been captured in 2009 as a yearling in the Foothill Road area along with its mother and a female sibling.

The family group was relocated to the Spotted Bear area, but the yearling female was recaptured south of Lakeside in June 2010. That bear soon after wandered back to Flathead Lake, making an elaborate crossing to the east shore that was tracked by GPS coordinates downloaded from a satellite collar she was wearing. She is now roaming in the Swan Lake area.