Grizzly/Brown Bears

Selkirk Mountains grizzly population as high as 72

Posted: Thursday, November 4, 2010 12:00 am | Updated: 9:52 am, Mon Nov 8, 2010.
By LAURA ROADY

There are between 50 and 72 grizzly bears inhabiting the Selkirk Mountains of Idaho and British Columbia, according to a recent study.
“Sixty-five to 70 bears has been my estimate,” said Wayne Wakkinen, Idaho Fish and Game biologist, who presented the information at the September KVRI meeting. “We were pretty good with our guess.”

Results indicate that grizzly bear density ranges from 2.5 to 3.6 bears per 100 square miles, with the Selkirks covering approximately 2,000 square miles.
Density results are similar to grizzly bear studies in the Canadian Selkirks, with densities of 16.5 bears per 1,000 square kilometers in Canada and 14.1 bears per 1,000 square kilometers in the U.S.

“Four of the bears in our sampling were also sampled in British Columbia,” said Wakkinen. Individual bears could be identified because both studies relied on DNA from hair samples to count the bears.

The study provides a size estimate of the population, but Wakkinen warned it doesn’t say anything about the trend. While the DNA does indicate if the bear is male or female, it doesn’t indicate whether it is of reproductive age.

Of the 15 grizzly bears captured in the study area, nine were females and six were males. With the results extrapolated to the entire Selkirk Range, the estimated population is 50 to 72 grizzly bears.

Grizzly bears in the Selkirk Mountains have a distinct DNA fingerprint that allows researchers to distinguish them from grizzlies in the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem and the Northern Continental Divide ecosystem.

“These are resident bears,” Wakkinen said. “There is evidence that the Selkirk species is expanding… I think with the amount of movement between the Northern Continental Divide ecosystem, the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem and the Selkirks, that we are not in a big rush to be concerned about genetics … I think it is getting better.”

To further understand the grizzly bear population in the Selkirks, the next project focuses on habitat-quality monitoring. “If we can rate habitat… then we can say that the density (of the grizzly bears) is higher or lower in certain habitat areas,” Wakkinen said.

Watch the in-depth King 5 news coverage of the grizzly bear survey in the North Cascades. Scientists will set up 75-100 hair snags and a few dozen remote cameras that cover three areas in Washington State, north of Highway 20, between Highway 20 and Highway 2, and between Highway 2 and Interstate 90, all within the 9,565 square miles of prime habitat for recovering grizzlies. Approximately $90,000 in grants-mainly from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service but also from the U.S. Forest Service-will fund the project.

Although the last grizzly bear in the Cascades was killed in the 1960’s, there have been confirmed reports of grizzly bears since that time. In fact, the last confirmed grizzly sighting was in 1996 in the Glacier Peak Wilderness area. Bill Gaines, wildlife biologist for the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, states there was a “pretty good” grizzly sighting in the Chiwawa river Valley north of Lake Wenatchee in the fall of 2008.

We are excited for confirmation of grizzlies in the Cascade mountains but the Grizzly Bear Outreach Project also realizes if no evidence is found, it does not mean grizzlies are not out there. Hair snags and remote cameras are not foolproof when it comes to documenting the presence of grizzly bears.

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20106100303

By KARL PUCKETT • Tribune Staff Writer • June 10, 2010

Two young grizzly bears spotted Tuesday evening near Floweree between Great Falls and Fort Benton probably are the first grizzlies in several decades to make it to the Missouri River, where the bears historically lived, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.

Diane Walker, who ranches near Floweree, witnessed the groundbreaking grizzlies.

“They just stopped and looked at us,” said Walker, who was with family when she saw the bears. “They didn’t seem to be frightened or anything.”

The bears were acting playful with each other, she added.

Mike Martin, a FWP game warden captain, said the bears haven’t attacked any livestock or caused other problems.

“But we want people out recreating or living in the area to be observant,” he said.

As of Wednesday evening, the bears still were in the area, according to authorities.

Two young grizzlies have made their way to the Missouri River near Floweree. They are the first two bears in recent history to make it as far as the Missouri. (PHOTO COURTESY RICHARD LOUMA)

Mike Madel, a FWP grizzly bear management specialist, said the agency is monitoring the bears’ movements but will not take any action unless the bears kill livestock.

“They are in a relatively remote stretch of the Missouri between Great Falls and Fort Benton,” he said. “It’s possible they swim the river and get into the Highwood Mountains.”

It also is possible the grizzlies could reach the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge, which is located on the Missouri River in northcentral Montana.

Last year, a young grizzly traveled 100 miles along the Teton River from the Rocky Mountain Front to Loma, just 1 1/2 miles from the Missouri. But before it reached the big river, it was captured and relocated because it killed sheep.

The grizzlies spotted Tuesday evening at Floweree also traveled the Teton east from the Rocky Mountain Front, Madel said.

Later, the pair was observed traveling in Black Coulee toward the Missouri River. Madel said “it’s very likely” the bears made it to the Missouri, where grizzlies once were common.

That would make them the first grizzlies on the Missouri in recent history, Madel said. When explorers Lewis and Clark traveled through the area in 1804, grizzlies were common on the Missouri River in what is now Great Falls.

“We’re not looking for the grizzly population to move further and further east, but it is occurring naturally,” Madel said.

Eye-witness accounts and physical evidence collected this week confirmed rumors that the grizzlies were on the Teton River north of Great Falls in early June.

Walker said she was at home when her daughter-in- law Shannon Walker, who lives a quarter of a mile away from Diane Walker, called her at 8:30 p.m.

“She said, ‘My God, there’s two grizzlies in front of the hog pen,'” Diane Walker said.

The bears tore one side of the hog pen off, but no hogs were killed, Walker said.

She called the sheriff office, but in the meantime the grizzlies moved out of the hog pen and into a field at the side of the house. Walker, her son J.B. Walker, Shannon Walker and Walker’s sister and brother-in- law watched the bears from the railroad tracks.

“Then they got real playful. They’d stop and bat one another. Then they’d sit down,” she said.

Walker said residents of the area believe grizzlies will be making regular appearances on the prairie each spring.

Bears on the fringes of the core grizzly ecosystem in northcentral Montana are expanding into new areas on all sides, but the development is more dramatic east of the Front because the country there is so open, Madel said.

“Biologically, it’s just a function of population expansion,” he said.

A trend study by FWP concluded that the grizzly population in northcentral Montana is growing by 1 to 3 percent a year.

A study led by the U.S. Geological Survey previously pegged the population in that area at a minimum of 765 bears.

The population work is part of efforts to remove the bear from federal protection, which came in 1975. Madel said a team is developing a conservation strategy that is needed before the bears are considered recovered.

“Obviously, we’ve met the population criteria,” he said.

Young bears are expanding home ranges, learning from sows that are following rivers onto the prairie, Madel said. While the prairie is open, it actually c ontains surprisingly remote and ideal habitat for bears, especially along river drainages, Madel said.

However, much of that remote country also is on private land, which will necessitate FWP working with landowners on prevention measures to reduce conflicts, he said.