It’s been a good year so far for grizzly bear recovery efforts in northwestern Montana.
Wayne Kasworm of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services office out of Libby reported last week no known grizzly bear deaths so far in 2010. Meanwhile, plans call for another female grizzly relocation to the Cabinet Mountains this summer.
“We would propose to release a female in upper Silver Butte Creek near the south end of the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness,” Kasworm said. “This action is intended to gradually increase the distribution of animals by working outward from the core distribution suggested by telemetry and sightings.”
The bear would have no history of conflicts with humans and be radio collared and monitored.
“Our genetics work has identified a limited number of males in this population that are not related to the recent transplants and we would propose to move additional males into this population as well,” Kasworm added. “As with females we would only use males with no history of conflicts with humans and target younger males as they may be more likely to stay in the target area.”
The proposal to move a young male bear into the Cabinet population was discussed recently at an Interagency Grizzly Bear Subcommittee meeting. Kasworm threw out the possibility of relocating a young male from the Yaak River drainage south to the Cabinets but the decision was made to move one from the Flathead drainage.
On May 22, two trap teams captured a male grizzly at Rock Creek. Officials believed the bear to be 3 or 4 years old with a weight of around 200 pounds. The bear was fitted with a GPS radio collar.
“In addition to any grizzly bears captured, we will collar black bears in the area to provide data for modeling linkage habitat across the Clark Fork River,” Kasworm said. “Trapping during the rest of the summer will occur in the Yaak River drainage.”
Three female grizzlies are currently being monitored through GPS – an adult and “sub-adult” in the Yaak and a bear that had been relocated to the Cabinets last year. In addition, seven black bears are also being monitored via GPS to compare movement patterns with grizzlies.
“The augmentation bear has moved from the West Cabinets to the main Cabinets, but could not be located during the last two flights,” Kasworm reported. “Given the amount of movement, it is doubtful that she has cubs. The adult female in the Yaak remained in the den until early May and has not moved very far from her den which could be indicative of a bear with cubs.”
Kasworm also said lab analysis of hair collected last year has not yet been completed.
“We anticipate hair snagging and cameras at numerous sites in the Cabinet Mountains this summer and some sites are already active,” he said.
