State wildlife officers completed their investigation of a reported self-defense shooting of a male grizzly bear in the Lower Thompson River area last month and have cleared the hunter of any wrongdoing, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
FWP Game Warden Troy Hinck and Warden Sergeant Jon Obst corroborated the information given by the hunter and no criminal charges are being filed.
On Oct. 26, the hunter was deer hunting along the Lower Thompson River when a large bear came running out of the brush toward him. The man shot the grizzly in the chest from roughly 11 yards away with a .270 caliber rifle. The bear ran off into the brush. The hunter and a companion followed the tracks of the bear briefly until they realized it was a grizzly, at which time they left the area and reported it to FWP.
The bear was a collared male grizzly. In 2011, it was first captured in a research trap in Elder Creek, British Columbia, Canada. There was no radio collar attached. On April 7, 2014, FWP captured the bear at a livestock depredation site south of Eureka. The bear was collared and released along the Camas Creek Road in Glacier National Park. The bear was being monitored monthly and shown to be in the North Fork area until late April, then located in the Middle Fork Flathead drainage. In September, the bear’s last location was in the Star Meadows area west of Kalispell.
Grizzly bears are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Regional Warden Captain Lee Anderson noted that it is not illegal to shoot an animal in defense of human life. The law does require these incidents be reported to FWP enforcement quickly so a thorough investigation can be conducted.