Griz relocation
An anesthetized grizzly gets an ear tag in preparation for release into the Cabinet Mountains. Photo by Kootenai Valley Record.
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Grizzly relocated to Cabinets
by Brent Shrum, Kootenai Valley Record
July 29, 2008
A young female grizzly was relocated to the Cabinet Mountains last week as part of an ongoing effort to bolster the area’s bear population.
The bear, believed to be 2½ years of age and weighing in at 185 pounds, was caught Wednesday on the Stillwater State Forest just east of the Lincoln County line and released between the east and south forks of the Bull River Thursday after being evaluated and fitted with a tracking collar.
The current population of grizzlies in the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem is estimated at around 50 bears – 15 to 25 in the Cabinets and 25 to 35 in the Yaak, said Kim Annis, a Libby-based bear management specialist for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. The goal of the augmentation project is to get the population to around 100 bears in the Cabinet-Yaak.
"It’s a very slow process, because they don’t reproduce very fast," Annis said.
Female grizzlies reach maturity at age 5 and breed only every three to four years at best.
Following studies in the 1980s, one female bear was released into the Cabinets each year from 1990 to 1994. Further research by FWP, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service led to the relocation of two more bears Cabinets in 2005 and 2006. No appropriate bears were caught last year, Annis said.
"Basically we’re taking them out of a healthier population – female bears with no history of conflict – to augment the population in the Cabinet Mountains specifically," she said.
At least one of the bears relocated to the Cabinets has reproduced and has become a grandmother, Annis said. None of the bears has had any reported conflicts with people.
"Nobody ever saw them," Annis said.
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Editor’s Note: See the July 28, 2008 edition of the Kootenai Valley Record for the printed version of this story. The Kootenai Valley Record publishes once a week, on Monday, in Libby, Montana. They are a locally owned community newspaper, located at 403 Mineral Avenue in Libby. For in-county and out-of-county subscription information, call 406-293-2424, or e-mail kvrecord@gmail.com.
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