Montana study aims to reduce grizzly-livestock encounters

POLSON, Mont. – A University of Montana graduate student is partnering with Indian tribes to study how effective electric fences are in protecting poultry and livestock from grizzly bear attacks.

The Missoulian reported Saturday that the study will explore whether electric fencing changes the way grizzlies move through the populated Mission and Flathead Valleys.

Student Kari Eneas and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Natural Resources Department will conduct the study, which will focus on GPS-collared grizzly bears.

The department has experimented with electric fencing over the past 15 years.

Wildlife program manager Dale Becker says incidents in which both cattle and bears are killed have dropped significantly since the 1970s and 1980s. The study aims to further reduce the number of those incidents.