Grizzly vs. brown bear - know the difference

The federal enforcement division will be in the area checking bear hunters this spring, as well as have a decoy - a grizzly bear - just in time for bear season, which began yesterday, Tuesday, April 15.

“We’re being watched by federal agencies and other agencies that are letting people know we do not want any grizzly bears shot,” said Jerry Brown, wildlife biologist for Fish, Wildlife & Parks. “So they need to make really good decisions about what it is they’re looking at.”

According to the 2007 grizzly bear monitoring report on the FWP Web site: fwp.mt.gov, last year, 24 grizzlies were killed, with only one due to mistaken identification.

Two of the deaths were due to illegal causes, three from self defense, five from trains and six from vehicles. Two were terminated by management, four were due to unknown causes, and one was a cub that had been orphaned.

The differences between grizzlies and black bears can be found at http://fwp.mt.gov/bearid/default.html .

“It’s really incumbant on these bear hunters to know what it is they’re looking at, because if we start losing grizzly bears because black bear hunters are mistakenly shooting them, it will be very difficult to maintain a black bear hunt,” said Brown.

If a grizzly is shot instead of a black, a judge decides the punishment, but even if it is a mistake, a ticket and fine is still involved.

“It depends on what they do,” Brown said. “If they address it up front and say ‘I made a mistake,’ they still get a ticket because the law says they will. If they try to hide it, they can get into big trouble because it’s a federal offense.”

Brown said most turn themselves in, but some have tried to get away with it. Other hunters also turn in the offenders as well.

In order to buy a black bear license, hunters now have to take an identification test that has a tutorial about black bear and grizzly bear differences.

“If you can’t pass the test, you can’t buy a hunting license,” said Brown.

The license, $350 for a non-resident and $19 for a resident, also mandates hunters choose either the eastern or western region of the state. A conservation license is also required, as with all hunting licenses.

There are grizzly bears in both regions, however the eastern Flathead range and Glacier range are host to more.

Most of the districts east of Montana Highway 93 remain open until May 31, staying open longer than the western region.

This is because usually bears come out earlier in the western area, although with the heavier snow it wasn’t the case this year.

“If they come out and there’s not much to eat, they will go back in the den and come out a little later this year,” said Brown.

This year’s heavy snow could also impede hunters.

“Even at some of the lower altitudes, the roads may be bermed in and access to the forest might be quite reduced this year,” said Brown.

“Bears may stay in longer, but by the end of April they’ll be out, and if they aren’t finding much then they will come down to wherever it’s greening up, and that might put them in contact with hunters.”

Nevertheless, this shouldn’t slow down the bear hunt in the region, which is a highly popular area for bear hunters - particularly non-residents, according to Brown.

Last year, bears were taken from hunters from every state except Alaska and Rhode Island.

The number of total bears differs from year to year, but averages around 500.

Brown said the numbers fluctuate as high as 700 and as low as 350 each year, with non-residents comprising 40-45 percent of hunters in the spring hunt and resident hunters dominating the fall hunt.

“A lot of the areas around us that used to provide bear hunting don’t do it any longer,” he said, noting Washington and Oregon.

Every black bear harvested has a mandatory check-in, in which information is compiled, such as the sex, age, hair and even a tooth.

This information, retrieved since 1985, helps keep track of the harvest rate and provides valuable information of the population as a whole.

“If you have a lot of young bears in the population, that means you have pretty good reproduction and they will get harvested - the two-year-olds,” said Brown, adding that a good berry crop also leads to higher numbers.

“When the huckleberries are pretty good, you can expect more cubs; if they’re good again, then expect cub survival.”

Likewise, berry crop failures such as last years’ also impact the population.

A potential contributing factor to the the lower output of berries is the number of commerical huckleberry pickers using devices that potentially damage the plants with mechanical raking that breaks branches.

“Wherever the food is, there will be bears,” said Brown. “Who knows what the berry crop will be this year - it could be wonderful or another bust.”

Brown said even if the huckleberry crop is down again this year, the bears eat the rest of the year on other food sources in the wet, forested environment, such as grasses, service berry, hawthorne and mountain ash.

“When that happens, they drop down into the creek zones, feeding on chokecherry, plums, apples - the fruit trees closer to the homeowners or low elevation hunters.”

Brown said a black bear study is currently winding down in Montana, which will validate the black bear population numbers.

Rick Mace oversees the DNA catch program, which involves barbed wire set in selected spots in the woods and in given hunting districts to catch hair, which identifies individual animals in the population.

“It’s pretty stable,” Brown said of the population. “It goes through cycles like every other population.”