Brown Bear Hunting

Two captive grizzlies, Grinder and Coola at Grouse Mountain, British Columbia were just following their natural instincts. The two grizzlies live in an enclosure in a wooded area just like in the wild, surrounded by woods. Small animals have found their way through the fence previously, and the grizzlies do what they would do naturally, kill them. A black bear cub had the misfortune of being able to crawl and squeeze under the fence. Black bears and grizzlies are not friendly to each other, in fact they are enemies. Grinder and Coola did what they would have done if they met a black bear in the wild.

Yet another hunter has been attacked by a grizzly bear. Timothy Hix of Jackson, Wyoming was elk hunting on Sunday in Grand Teton National Park. He was headed south over Glacier Overlook and surprised what he believes to be a grizzly bear. The grizzly bear was about 10 yards away. Hix did not have his pepper spray ready, so he dropped to the ground and covered his head. The bear bit him a couple of times, and may have swiped at him.

Saturday marked the opening day of the big game hunt season in Lewis and Clark National Forest. Anthony Willits and Greg Louden of Kalispell, Montana had successfully shot an elk around 11:30 that morning. They were starting to transport the meat, trip by trip. They had taken one load of meat to the trailhead, about 4-5 miles from where the elk carcass was. They returned and continued working on the elk, for about 10 minutes. Then they heard snorting and grunting - a grizzly sow challenged the two hunters for the elk carcass.

Dan Kotter works with a team that researches grizzly bears and their population. He had plannned on hiking into Great Bear Wilderness, just south of Glacier National Park. The first day was going to be a 15 mile hike on Devil Creek Trail, camp over night, then hike out the next day as part of the research project.

The Devil Creek Trail is a route that Kotter has traveled before, collecting bear hair samples from rub trees that are repeatedly used by bears along the trail. Kendall is using rub tree hair samples from across the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem to monitor grizzly bear population trends.