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Grizzly Bear Project Field Update May 29-June 12, 2010

Added by George Bettas on June 15, 2010

May 30, 2010

Most of the biologists were taking the weekend off so Derek and Heather answered a call about a black bear that had broken into a landowner’s chickens in Lakeside, Montana.  This had been going on for about a week where the bear killed the chicks, then broke in to the actual chicken coop and killed some chickens.  We looked the area over and found where the bear had fed on the chickens, also found some hair that didn’t look exactly like black bear hair, but the landowner said he had seen a brown-phase black bear in the area.  We set a trap for the bear and the landowner committed to putting up electric fence around his chickens to avoid future conflicts.

May 31, 2010

We did not capture the bear at Lakeside.  We assisted Tim Manley in releasing the three bears from Martin City down the South Fork of the Flathead River.  We returned from that release pretty late in the afternoon/evening and got the call that we had caught a bear up the North Fork of the Flathead River, up at Trail Creek.  We all agreed that it would be too late by the time we got up there, to safely immobilize a bear, so we would go up on June 1 to take care of it.

June 1, 2010

We got the call that we did capture a bear at Lakeside.  Derek and Heather ran down to pick up the bear, then would tie in with Tim Manley to go up to Trail Creek. Upon arriving at Lakeside, we were shocked to find a young grizzly bear in the trap.  Lakeside, Montana has not seen a grizzly bear in decades, in fact the Forest Service had basically declared that area as a dead zone for grizzlies.  So to capture this bear was a huge deal. 

“Grizzly bear trapped at Lakeside”

We took the bear up to Tim’s house, left it there to be immobilized later and went up to Trail Creek.  That bear turned out to be a subadult female that we had dealt with before.  We named her “Patty” and she lives in the area with her sister “Betty.”  They are habituated to being around humans, but do not cause too many problems, yet.  We keep a close eye on them, but Patty had dropped her collar last fall, so Tim was very happy to get a new one on her.

“Heather and Tim working on Patty”

"Patty with a new collar."

Back at Tim’s house we chemically immobilized the “Lakeside Grizzly” and discovered that she, too, was a bear we knew.  She was caught last spring along with her brother and mother killing chickens near Echo Lake, which is on the east side of the Flathead Valley and quite a few miles away from Flathead Lake.  She is now two years old.  How this little bear made it from there to Lakeside is a mystery.  We put a collar on her and allowed her to recover in the trap overnight.  She is a great example of what we always tell people, that mom teaches her cubs the bad habits she has. 

"Tim Manley putting a collar on the Lakeside Grizzly."

"Orca checks out the Lakeside Grizzly."

June 2, 2010

We take the “Lakeside Grizzly” up to an area near Blacktail Mountain to release her.  Many people were frustrated with this decision, but the state follows its guidelines that, basically, grizzly bears will be managed where they occur.  There was no point in taking this bear back over on the east side, what would happen if she tried to come back to the west side?  The decision was made to release her in the area she was caught, but in an area away from possible conflict, and see where she goes.

After the release, Derek returned home to work and Tim and Heather went south of Wood’s Bay, on the east side of the lake, to set a trap for a black bear.  Tim and Heather also monitored some other bears in the area while driving to and from the trap site.

June 3, 2010

 Day Off!!!  Hard to believe!!!

June 4, 2010

Paperwork morning, Heather went to the office where she met Tim after he flew to locate bears.  The “Lakeside Grizzly” was already traveling south, away from Lakeside, and was north of Lake Mary-Ronan.  While in the office, a landowner came in to talk to someone about a black bear that was killing her livestock.  Tim spoke with her and the decision was made to set a trap for the bear.  Heather returned home to pick up Derek and a trap, met back up with Tim and set at the landowner’s property, up in the mountains, pretty far from Kalispell.  The description of what the bear had been up to sounded very much like it was a grizzly bear, but the landowners were sure it was a black bear.  It killed pigs, goats and a llama. 

The bear was trapped at 2 AM on June 5.

June 5, 2010

We went to pick up the bear we trapped last night and it turned out to be, indeed, a grizzly bear.  We pulled the trap out and took it to Glacier National Park to immobilize and collar the bear.  They do not trap many bears in the park, so we often will take bears to the rangers for them to be able to keep up on chemical immobilization of bears.  The bear weighed in at 376 pounds and was approximately 5 years of age, still somewhat young.  We put the bear back into the culvert trap to recover so it could be released on June 7.

“Heather demonstrating to Glacier National Park personnel how to draw blood from a grizzly bear”

June 6, 2010

Heather apologizes…she can’t remember what happened this day!  That’s what she gets for not writing it down!

June 7, 2010

- Tim Manley had to attend a meeting at Spotted Bear Ranger Station.  He took the bear from the 5^th with him to release along Spotted Bear River Road.  A few days ago he set a trap for a black bear that had gotten in to a shed with trout feed in Haskill Basin, north of Columbia Falls, and caught it Sunday night.  Heather and Derek picked the bear up and put it at Tim Manley’s house.  They pulled the trap out that had been set many days ago south of Wood’s Bay and used it to set a trap for a black bear that had gotten garbage east of Lake Blaine in the Flathead valley.  Along with setting a trap, they delivered a bear-resistant garbage bin for the landowners to use until they could come up with a solution for their garbage storage.  After setting the trap, Heather and Derek assisted the landowner with picking up all of her garbage strewn across her yard and up the hill behind her house.  After all of the garbage was picked up, it filled the 95 gallon bear-resistant bin.

After that, Derek and Heather returned to Tim Manley’s house and they chemically immobilized the black bear to put tags in its ears.  The bear was much bigger than anyone originally thought, turned out to be a large male, about 8-10 years of age and weighed in at 328 pounds.  He had multiple puncture wounds from fighting with other males and it was also discovered that he had an old break in his rear left femur.  The wound had healed and a large mass of calcification had formed…a great testament to the healing power of wildlife.

“Large male black bear while chemically immobilized”

June 8, 2010

A bear was captured at Lake Blaine where the garbage situation was, so Derek and Heather went to pick it up, turned out to be a little brown-phase black bear.  It was taken up to Tim Manley’s house to be held in the trap until Friday when it would be used for a handling clinic at Glacier National Park. These small black bears are easy to hold in the big traps, they can move around and are fed road killed deer and watered every day.

“Photo of brown-phase black bear before it entered the trap and was captured”

Derek and Heather then set a trap on Wolf Creek Dr, near Ferndale, Montana, for a reported grizzly that had gotten into garbage and acting aggressively.  The landowners also have chickens and rabbits, so we definitely want to get the bear before it gets into too much trouble.

June 9, 2010

Derek and Heather take the large black bear up Coal Creek in the North Fork of the Flathead drainage to release him.  We had hoped to release the puppies on the bear, but he ran into the raging Coal Creek and if the puppies had pursued, they risked being washed downstream, so we simply had them bark on leash, instead. 

Derek and Heather then went out to lunch, thinking the day was over, but received a call about a grizzly bear breaking into someone’s house an hour before.  Derek contacted the landowner, but could not get a hold of her.  Assuming it was an urgent matter, Derek and Heather picked up a trap and went to the office to get some bait when the landowner called back.  Turns out it was a miscommunication.  The person who originally got the message got the event wrong and, by the time it reached Derek and Heather, what started out as a black bear knocking down birdfeeders two night ago had turned into a grizzly bear breaking into a house an hour ago.

No trap needed to be set, Derek simply talked to the landowner, had her take down any remaining birdfeeders and told her to call back if the black bear returned.

June 10, 2010

No bears caught anywhere.  Instead we decided to set some traps for a group of three grizzly bears being seen in a pasture north of Ferndale.  The owners are friends of Tim Manley’s and it was more of a proactive effort.  We believed that these three bears were three two year-olds that had been kicked off of their mother and were now hanging out together eating grass in the landowner’s pasture.

When we arrived, we discovered that the bears had actually unearthed a buried horse and were feeding on it.  We set three traps for the three bears and Derek put up cameras to see when they were coming in and if they went to the traps.

June 11, 2010

No bears captured.  Tim had a meeting to attend, Heather had an appointment, so Derek went down to the location of the three bears to change out tapes on the cameras and check to see if any of the bears had been to the traps.  No evidence, tough competition with a dead horse.  Derek picked up Heather and joined Tim Manley at Glacier National Park to assist with the capture and handling clinic, since we provided the black bear.  It was very successful and all of the rangers appreciated the hands-on experience with the black bear.

After finishing the clinic, Derek and Heather left to set a trap north of Columbia Falls for a bear getting into bird feeders. The landowner reported that it was a grizzly bear, we could not find evidence one way or the other.  Tim Manley, meanwhile, went west of Kalispell, to Kila and set a trap for a black bear that was trying to break into a chicken coop.

June 12, 2010

Tim Manley thought it would be a day off as there we no captures, but as Derek and Heather were looking at video and photos from the location of the three bears, they thought that one bear seemed more mature looking at certain angles, then one frame showed four bears.  We informed Tim that mom must still be with the three 2 year olds, but that wasn’t going to change our trapping technique, yet. 

Derek wanted to solve the issue of the horse carcass competing with the traps.  We all agreed that electric fence around the pit would be the solution.  That could be done in the afternoon…however, Derek and Heather continued looking at the video and another segment showed the four bears…then a fifth bear stepped into view!  That changes things a bit.  Not sure if that might be a male following the adult female around or what.  Tim agreed with Derek and Heather that more traps needed to go down. 

“Three two-year-old grizzly bears feeding on buried horse carcass”

There was still the little black bear that needed to be released.  Derek and Heather did that quickly by Hungry Horse Reservoir, using it as another opportunity to release the puppies on the bear.  They did beautifully.  We then took that smaller trap and used it to replace a larger trap set the day before for the bear breaking in to birdfeeders, so that the larger trap could be used at the location with the 5 bears.  Derek and Heather met up with Tim who shad pulled another trap from a research trapping location and we went to set them.  There are now 5 traps at the location and electric fence up around the pit with the horse in it. 

As Tim, Derek and Heather were leaving the location, a call came in from the sheriff’s department that three black bear cubs were up a tree at Big Sky Water Slides and a crowd was gathering.  We aimed our trucks for Columbia Falls and headed to the call.  Half way there, the sheriff’s department called and notified Tim that the bears had left the area, deputies could not find them and the crowd had dispersed.  Tim told Derek and Heather to head home and he’d swing by and make sure nothing was going on.  He would call us if there was still a problem.  Tim never called back so we assume there was no problem!