Wildlife officials captured a 500-pound male grizzly bear south of Libby off Showshoe Road earlier this week.
The collared bear was born in the Yaak and crossed to the Cabinet Mountains, becoming the first documented native grizzly to make this crossing since the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began its monitoring program in the early 1990s, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
It is also the first grizzly to be captured for management reasons in the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem in 2015.
The bear was the latest to be involved in a capture or conflict in Northwest Montana in recent weeks.
The 6.5-year-old grizzly went through a non-functioning electric fence and consumed honey out of beehives. The electric fence was restored to working order, and the grizzly bear was radio collared and relocated to the head of Bear Creek in the Cabinet Mountains the evening of Oct. 6, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
This bear was born in the Yaak in 2009, FWP says. It was originally captured and collared as a 2-year-old in 2011 in Meadow Creek as part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grizzly bear monitoring program. The bear’s GPS collar dropped off in late 2012. Between 2013 and 2015, this bear crossed from the Yaak area to the Cabinet Mountains.