Scientists To Evaluate Success Of Relocating Grizzlies In Montana One Bear Known To Have Died; Whereabouts Of 3 Unknown

The federal government’s 5-year-old program to rebuild the grizzly bear population in the Cabinet Mountains of northwestern Montana is pausing to take a breath.

Scientists will spend this summer trying to judge the success of past stocking efforts, said biologist Wayne Kasworm.

If biologists believe more bears are necessary, they will start a new plan from scratch, he said.

From 1991 to 1994, biologists moved four female bears from British Columbia to the Cabinets to shore up the area’s dwindling bear population. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service originally had planned to transplant eight bears, but it reduced the number to four after public concerns were raised at hearings.

Kasworm will use two measures to gauge the success of the transplants: The bears must have remained where they were released and they must have survived to reproduce.

But one of the relocated bears is known to be dead; its skeleton was found in the mountains.

Another has disappeared, and Kasworm has been unable to raise the signal from its radio collar. He fears it may have been killed.

The other two bears lost their radio collars, so Kasworm has no way to find them.

This spring and summer, trapping teams will set snares in the Cabinets, looking for the transplants or any native grizzly bears.

Trappers worked the Cabinets in a similar effort last year. They caught black bears but no grizzlies.

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