Wildlife Agents Seek Clues In Shooting Death Of Grizzly

State and federal wildlife agents are looking for clues to the 1995 shooting of a Washington grizzly bear.

Sketchy information in a statement issued Monday is the first officers have told the public about the death of the 2-1/2-year-old male bear. It is the third Selkirk Mountain grizzly known to have been illegally shot last year.

Biologists believe there are no more than 25 of the federally protected bears in northeastern Washington and North Idaho.

The 200-pound grizzly wore a radio collar and was known as the Nordman bear because it was live-trapped near that Idaho community on Oct. 26. It was released near the Canadian border and spotted again on Oct. 27.

Biologists on the ground and in aircraft could not find the bear Nov. 1, and suspected it had been poached, said Don Carr, an agent for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

Agents believe the bear was killed near Granite Pass, Wash.

Its carcass was dumped in Idaho.

Agents have interviewed a man Carr described as “a person of interest.” There is not enough evidence to call him a suspect, Carr said.

“Anyone who was up in that country during those four days (after the bear was last spotted alive), who saw anything they thought was suspicious, we’d like to hear from them,” said Carr, adding that agents only recently found enough of the bear’s body parts to confirm that it was the Nordman bear.

There were many people in the woods, since black bear season was open in both states at the time the grizzly was shot, he said.

Anyone with information about the shooting should call Carr at (208) 448-2302; Washington wildlife agent Ted Holden at (509) 447-4435; or Roger Parker, an agent for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, at 928-6050.

Wildlife biologists say more Inland Northwest grizzlies are killed by people - either illegally or accidentally - than die of natural causes.

Edward H. Smith, 18, of Colville, is accused of shooting a grizzly in Stevens County.

No one has been charged for the death of a 95-pound female grizzly shot last May near Bonners Ferry, Idaho.

, DataTimes