BILLINGS — Yearling grizzly bears that are relocated after getting into trouble with people aren’t especially likely to become repeat offenders later on, new research suggests.
Mark Haroldson, who conducted the study for the U.S. Geological Survey in Bozeman, reviewed ongoing records of yearling grizzlies relocated over three decades. Some of the young bears were relocated with their mothers. Other yearlings were moved separately.
Biologists theorized that grizzlies learned bad behavior such as raiding livestock feed and garbage cans from their mothers. In fact, yearlings relocated separately from their mothers were the ones that later on had significantly more run-ins with people and human habitation.
“If a bear gets in trouble, it doesn’t mean it’s a chronic offender,” Haroldson said.
The finding is still preliminary. The reason for the difference could be that most yearlings relocated separately from their mothers were males, which tend to be more aggressive than females, Haroldson told the Billings Gazette.
Survival to reproduction age was no different between the two groups and their reproduction rate also was about the same.
The research could have implications for grizzly management in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. In Wyoming, more grizzlies are frequenting rural subdivisions as the Yellowstone-area grizzly population continues to grow.
Livestock depredation is a common result: 189 livestock losses in Wyoming so far this year, 123 of them cattle.
“Other forms of conflict are actually pretty low,” said Dan Thompson, a large-carnivore specialist with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
Sixteen bears were relocated in Wyoming and six euthanized this year.
In southwest Montana, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has relocated four grizzlies so far this year, said Kevin Frey, a bear specialist for that agency.
“We’re doing pretty good with conflicts,” Frey said. “Garbage and unconfined attractant numbers are way down. Now it’s mostly livestock depredation.”