Food-Conditioned Grizzly Killed in Yellowstone River

Anglers on the Yellowstone River in late July floated past an unusual and disturbing sight: a grizzly carcass floating in the river, its head and paws missing. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks confirmed the carcass had been a problem bear they had to remove due to ongoing conflicts in the Gardiner area, north of Yellowstone National Park.

In early June, FWP began receiving reports of a male grizzly bear in Gardiner regularly seeking attractants at homes and campgrounds. Incidents picked up toward the end of the month, when the bear broke into homes in Gardiner, Maiden Basin, and a National Park Service employee’s house in Mammoth.

Morgan Jacobsen, communications and education manager for FWP, told Mountain Journal that they had staff in Gardiner for several weeks—bear specialists and game wardens—who responded to the conflicts, educated residents about the need to contain attractants, and helped some neighborhoods upgrade their garbage cans and install electric fencing.

Responding to conflicts almost nightly, FWP attempted to capture the grizzly, to no avail, with culvert traps, a common tactic in relocating bears. The traps include pipes welded onto trailers with a sliding door on the back. The pipe is baited, the bear crawls in to get the bait, and the sliding door closes behind it.

"The problem was that while we worked to trap the bear, there continued to be other attractants available in other locations," Jacobsen explained. "We couldn't effectively entice the bear while there was so much else to choose from."

In the early morning of July 18, the bear, known as Grizzly 769, broke into a home in Maiden Basin. By the time FWP could respond to the incident, it had crossed the highway and entered the Yellowstone River, presenting an opportunity to euthanize the bear without endangering residents. After FWP wardens shot the bear, it was carried downriver by the current, drifting underwater and out of sight of FWP, which had employees in the river trying to locate it.

Later that day, the carcass washed up on the river's west bank, just north of Maiden Basin. "The carcass was in a location where we could not safely and feasibly remove it from the river," said Jacobsen. "It was in a spot with a vertical bank, I'd guess 20-30 feet high, and we didn't have the personnel or equipment to remove what was probably a 500-pound adult male grizzly."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requires the removal of any body parts of potential monetary value when disposing of threatened or endangered species. In compliance with this regulation, FWP removed the bear's head and paws.

Jacobsen explained that this is also the protocol if someone kills a grizzly in self-defense in the backcountry. "It's the same procedure,” he said. “The carcass stays where the bear dies, and we remove the head and paws. That way, the carcass can be used by other creatures on the landscape. When we're able to capture a bear before it is euthanized, they are removed using lethal drugs and, therefore, cannot be left out on the land."

In a July 19 press release, FWP noted that bear specialists had collected genetic samples at conflict locations matching an adult male grizzly previously captured and tagged for research purposes, confirming it as the same animal involved in the Gardiner and Maiden Basin conflicts. 

The bear carcass was visible in the river for several days.

"It was very noticeable, and understandably, people had mixed feelings about it," said Jacobsen. “The outcome for this bear is unfortunate. If there's anything we can learn from all this, it's that there are things we can do as citizens and communities to avoid these conflicts from happening in the first place, like securing attractants in bear country. Unfortunately, because the conflicts continued and escalated, it created human safety risks that were not acceptable."

Jacobsen said he witnessed significant improvement in the community's ability to secure attractants during this period.

"It does take effort,” he said, “and sometimes it's an investment. Often we get caught up in the business and routine of life and forget where we are: we're in southwestern Montana; we have just about every kind of wildlife North America has to offer. Living in a place like this comes with responsibility, a measure of obligation to do our part to prevent conflicts from happening."