F&W Official: Careless People Caused Grizzly’s Death

Item: Grizzly’s death a senseless mortality/Jim Hagengruber, Spokesman-Review

Photo courtesy of Karen Dingerson

Colleague Jim Hagengruber tells Huckleberries: “This 2-year-old male grizzly bear was shot and killed near Priest Lake on Oct 4. Biologists first attempted to relocate the bear, but the animal returned to the Nordman to resume feeding on piles of corn and sunflower seeds put out by one or more local residents. The bear needed to be killed, biologists say, because it had lost its fear of humans. Only about 40 grizzlies are believed to be living in the Selkirk Mountains, making the population one of the nation’s most endangered. One of the state Fish and Game officials called in to kill the bear said the episode was “horrible.” He went on to tell Reporter James Hagengruber “I’ve been up here almost 20 years trying to recover bears, now we’re making a conscious decision to kill one. Yeah it was horrible.” The official went on to say he would like to see state or county laws that would allow game officers to halt the backyard feeding of wildlife in certain cases, including situations like this, where threatened and endangered species are put at risk. Another bear expert told The Spokesman-Review that feeding wildlife typically ends in disaster for the creatures. ‘A fed bear is a dead bear,’ he said.” See the story in Sunday’s SR.