Homeward Bound: The Grizzly Bear

The grizzly bears here in Montana (Ursus Arctos Horribilis) have for the last century been mostly confined to remote wilderness areas in the mountains.  They were, before white men settled the West, a plains animal.  During the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery the men in the expedition killed 43 of the grizzly bears they encountered while trekking along the rivers and streams across the plains—mostly here in Montana.  But the bears in the last couple of years have been venturing far out onto the high plains of Montana again, usually following the rivers that twist away from the Rocky Mountain front.

In a Great Falls Tribune article, Karl Puckett noted that in 2009 a young grizzly followed the Teton River all the way to Loma, Montana.  Loma is 100 miles from the mountains.  In June of 2010, two grizzlies were spotted near Floweree, again something near 100 miles from the Rocky Mountains.  In the smattering of towns only a few miles off the wall of mountains where the Rockies meet the Northern Plains, grizzly sightings are becoming downright common.

The male grizzlies in Montana average something in the range of 400 to 600 pounds.  They are much smaller than their immediate kin, the Alaskan Brown, which may easily reach over 1000 pounds.   The behavior of these bears, though, is markedly different.  The bears in Alaska seem genuinely unconcerned about sharing space with humans.  Fishermen and bears often shoulder along the same fishing holes on rivers during the salmon run.  That will not work with Grizzlies in Montana.  The bears in Montana are substantially more aggressive and may charge if you approach within a few hundred yards.  That is problematic when you consider that they have been clocked to run at 30 miles an hour.  A mother with her cubs is particularly wary of incursion into her claimed territory.

Though I suspect a reliable list of fatal grizzly attacks and maulings is available, I did not find such.  Wikipedia, yes.  Recent years have seen a few.  In 2011, two people were killed by grizzlies in Yellowstone Park.  Later that year, a grizzly, wounded by hunters on the Montana-Idaho border, turned on them, in the ensuing fight one man shot and killed his partner while trying to end the attack.  Another fatal Grizzly attack here in Montana occurred in the Gallatin National Forest near Bozeman in 2010.  The bears are expanding territory and being seen in unlikely places.  In 2007 a pheasant hunter was mauled, but survived, while hunting along Dupuyer Creek, some fifteen or so miles off the Front Range in open ranch country.  

I have a cabin deep in the mountains behind the Front.  The cabin is within walking distance of the Bob Marshall Wilderness.  Bear Country.  A grizzly sow and three cubs summered in my little valley a few years back.  Thankfully, I never encountered her.  I kept an eye roving at all times when I hiked around my cabin.

But the plains are where the bears once lived.  And now that their population has started to recover a little, some are feeling the urge to return home.        

--Mitchell Hegman

From the Great Falls Tribune:  http://howlingforjustice.wordpress.com/tag/grizzlies-returning-home/