Grizzly, wolf sighting leads to road closure
Horse Mountain, south of Libby
by Brent Shrum, Kootenai Valley Record
October 14, 2010
The recent sighting of a grizzly bear and several wolves taking turns feeding on a moose carcass on Horse Mountain south of Libby led to a weekend road closure for public safety.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service bear biologist Wayne Kasworm was in an airplane tracking a young adult male grizzly that had been captured in the Whitefish Range and released above Spar Lake in July when he spotted the bear on Thursday, Sept. 30. The animal was on the side of a road with the remains of a moose.
"The carcass was literally lying with part of its legs in the road, and the bear was on top of it and it was partially covered with dirt," Kasworm said.
The bear ran off as the airplane approached. On the plane’s next pass, Kasworm saw three wolves on the moose carcass.
About two hours later, after checking on some other radio-collared bears, Kasworm returned and saw that the bear was back on the carcass. After getting back to town, Kasworm talked with Forest Service officials about the incident, and it was decided to close the road from Friday through Monday to avoid any encounters between the bears and wolves and anybody who might be using the road.
A visit to the site on Monday revealed that little was left of the carcass.
"The bear and the wolves and whatever else had pretty much cleaned the moose up, and they opened the road up again," Kasworm said.
The cause of the moose’s death was not determined.
"I would say it’s possible that a grizzly could kill a moose," Kasworm said. "Certainly wolves could kill a moose."
It’s not unheard of to see a grizzly bear and wolves sharing a meal, Kasworm said.
"I can think of at least two or three other instances where I’ve seen grizzly bears and wolves together where there is a dead animal," he said.
Covering a dead animal with dirt is common behavior for both grizzly bears and mountain lions, Kasworm said.
"If somebody’s out hunting and sees a leg or something sticking up out of the dirt, please resist the temptation to try to investigate it too much, because there may be a grizzly bear or a wolf or something else just waiting around trying to finish off their meal," he said.
Hunters who have to leave game in the field overnight should make sure they leave it in a place they can see from a distance so they can watch for bear or wolf activity when they return, Kasworm said. The gut pile should be separated from the meat, which if possible should be suspended from a tree. Leaving an article of clothing or other item with human scent with the meat may help deter scavengers.
When returning to the site of a kill, hunters should make plenty of noise and be aware of the wind direction so their scent arrives ahead of them.
"The best thing that you can do is watch it for a little bit," Kasworm said.
A week after the release of a young adult male grizzly bear above Spar Lake, a 3- to 4-year-old female grizzly was transplanted to the Silver Butte area on Sunday, July 25.
The 231-pound female bear was captured by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks in the North Fork Flathead drainage the day before it was released into the Cabinets.
Part of an ongoing effort to recover grizzly bears in the Cabinets Mountains, this will be the last relocation for the year, said local FWP bear management specialist Kim Annis.
The bear was fitted with a special radio collar to enable biologists to closely follow its movements. It was released several miles behind gated Forest Service Road 594 in a small wet basin just beneath the ridgeline that leads into the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness.
The male bear released the previous week near Spar lake has been getting to know his new home and was recently located today about 10 miles north of the release site in the Callahan Creek drainage, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bear specialist Wayne Kasworm.
"We will continue to monitor these animals with regular flights," Kasworm said.
On July 20, another young male grizzly bear was captured in the South Fork of Big Creek about 25 miles north of Libby, Kasworm said. The animal was estimated to be 4 years old and weighed 280 pounds. The bear was fitted with a GPS radio collar and released.
Two other female grizzly bears – an adult near Northwest Peak and a sub-adult near Pink Mountain – are also being monitored, Kasworm said. Collars have also been fitted to 10 black bears in the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem, and that data will be used to compare habitat use of the two species, Kasworm said.
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Editor's Note: See the October 12, 2010 edition of the Kootenai Valley Record for the printed version of this story. The Kootenai Valley Record publishes once a week, on Tuesdays, 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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