Whitefish Range grizzly moves to Cabinets

Wildlife officials relocated a 249-pound male grizzly bear last weekend from the Whitefish Range to an area above Spar Creek in the West Cabinet Mountains south of Troy.

The 4-year-old grizzly, described as a sub-adult, was captured on Saturday near Coal Creek in Flathead National Forest’s Whitefish Range about 10 miles north of the Big Mountain Ski Area. The bear was held overnight and fitted with a radio collar on Sunday morning.

The grizzly was then moved to Kootenai National Forest. Officials released the bear at 7 p.m. Sunday in the Hiatt Creek drainage above Spar Lake to augment the grizzly population in the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem.

Kim Annis, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks bear management specialist in the Libby area, said the grizzly was a good candidate for the augmentation project. 

“We are very particular about getting a bear in good condition and with no history of conflict with humans,” Annis said.

Tim Manley, a grizzly bear management specialist with Montana FWP, and Derek and Heather Reich, sponsored by the Montana FWP Foundation, captured the bear as part of the ongoing effort to recover grizzly bears in the Cabinets.

“This animal had been previously captured in the same area last year as part of research trapping for a monitoring study in the Northern Continental Divide population,” said Wayne Kasworm of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Libby. “With our decision to move one male to the Cabinet Mountains this year, he became a candidate for transplant.”

The group fitted the bear with a special global positioning system radio collar. The collar will drop off the bear in early October 2011 and biologists will be able to download movement information.

“Our decision to move a male was based on a lack of male bears identified so far that were unrelated to one of our original (female) transplant bears from 1993,” Kasworm said. “DNA evidence has confirmed that the bear that was killed last fall in self-defense was this same female bear. She was moved to the Cabinet Mountains in 1993 as a 2-year-old and was known to have produced several litters of cubs. DNA in snagged hair has identified at least six of her offspring. Two of these were females that survived and produced cubs of their own.”

The grizzly was the sixth moved to the Cabinet Mountains since 2005.

“We will still attempt to move a young female to the area later this summer with an expected release in upper Silver Butte Creek near the south end of the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness,” Kasworm said. “As with previous animals, we will move a young female with no history of human conflicts.”

Kasworm said that a female released in the Cabinets in 2009 has not been located since early May. Her last location was in Flower Creek near the wilderness boundary.

“We have flown extensively trying to find the animal but with no success,” he said. “The young male grizzly bear that we captured in Rock Creek during May has moved northward in the Cabinet Mountains and has been monitored as far north as Granite Creek. We also have two radio-collared females in the Yaak River drainage.”

One of the two Yaak bears was seen with a cub near Northwest Peak but she apparently lost it in June. The cub’s cause of death is unknown.

“The other bear is a young female that uses the South Fork of the Yaak River,” Kasworm said. “While relocating this animal from the airplane another uncollared female grizzly bear with three cubs was observed.”