Grizzly relocated after killing pig in Yaak

A 524-pound male grizzly bear was captured by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks in the Yaak’s Seventeen Mile drainage last week, four days after killing a domestic pig.

The 17-year-old bruin was fitted with a GPS collar and released the same day, Sept. 29, in the Yaak’s Pete Creek drainage.

According to a Monday press release from the state wildlife agency, the bear was born in the Yaak in 1999 and was known to wildlife officials. Previously, it was captured and collared for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Cabinet-Yaak grizzly bear population monitoring program.

The killing of the unsecured pig on Sept. 25 was the bear’s first known conflict with people, and was the first time this year that a grizzly has been captured in the Cabinet-Yaak area for management reasons.

Fish, Wildlife and Parks encourages residents to use electric fencing to secure small livestock from bears. Information, assistance and free temporary loans of electrified fence are available to residents.

For more information, contact bear management specialist Kim Annis at 406-293-4161 or 291-1320.