Grizzly linked to Kansas woman’s death killed after stealing dog food from West Yellowstone home

Billings Gazette

A female grizzly bear responsible for killing a woman near Yellowstone National Park in July has been killed after it broke into a West Yellowstone-area home, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.

Amie Adamson, 47, of Derby, Kansas, was mauled while hiking on July 27. Attempts to trap and remove the grizzly were made due to the incident’s closeness to residences, campgrounds and a high-use off-highway vehicle trail system, but were unsuccessful. Public access to the area was also shut down following the mauling.

Early Saturday morning, Sept. 2, a homeowner reported a bear with a cub had broken through a kitchen window of an occupied home and removed a container of dog food from inside the house.

Later that evening, staff from FWP and local law enforcement captured the cub and, with authorization from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, shot the adult grizzly citing an “immediate public safety threat from the bear’s food-conditioned behavior.”

The adult grizzly was a 10-year-old female that had been captured in 2017 for research. Through genetic analysis and other identifying factors, the bear was confirmed to be involved in the fatal attack on Adamson. The bear was also involved in an encounter in Idaho that injured a person near Henrys Lake State Park in 2020.

Both incidents were assessed to be defensive responses by the bear.

The cub, a 46-pound male, is being held at FWP’s wildlife rehabilitation center in Helena while arrangements are made to transfer the cub to a zoo.

Adamson’s death is the 20th grizzly bear fatality recorded in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem since 1892.

So far this year, 31 grizzly bear deaths have been recorded in the region, 22 of which were human caused.