Page 10 - Flathead Beacon // 6.25.14

10 | JUNE 25, 2014 NEWS
FLATHEADBEACON.COM
A grizzly bear that was captured and relocated to the Cabi- net Mountains. COURTESY PHOTO
Three Grizzlies Killed Near Ferndale, Investigation Underway
Facts
FIGURES
Numbers in the news
14
DUIs that a 62-year-old Billings man has accrued since 1993; Edwin Cuch was convicted of his latest offense last week and will be sentenced in Septem- ber.
5.6
Percentage of non- seasonally adjusted unemployment in Flathead County in May; nearly 200 jobs were gained last month.
4.6
Percentage of Montana’s seasonally adjusted job- less rate, the 10th lowest in the nation and nearly 2 percentage points below the national average.
2.6
Percentage of North Da- kota’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate, the lowest in the country.
In other activity, biologists relocate pair of grizzlies to Cabinet Mountains
By BEACON STAFF
Three young grizzly bears were dis- covered dead in the Ferndale area recent- ly, and an investigation has been launched by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks en- forcement is assisting in the investigation and no further information has been pro- vided at this time.
Anyone with information is encour- aged to contact 1-800-TIP-MONT. Callers can remain anonymous and may be eligi- ble for a reward.
In a separate incident, Glacier National Park officials announced that park rangers had euthanized a 5-year-old black bear on June 17. The 160-pound animal was cap- tured in the Many Glacier area on the east side of the park.
Rangers say it had become conditioned to human food, had broken several win- dows and gotten into a residence by break-
ing through a door.
In another separate incident Montana
Fish Wildlife and Parks personnel eutha- nized a yearling black bear in the Lake Mary Ronan area on June 10. The bear was euthanized because of its close proximity to people in campgrounds during the day, according to FWP. Camp foods and gar- bage were left available for the bear, teach- ing it that people are a resource for food, spokesperson John Fraley said, and as the foraging continued the bear became more determined to get the foods even in occu- pied campsites.
TWO FEMALE GRIZZLIES RELO- CATED TO CABINET MOUNTAINS
Two young female grizzly bears were relocated last week to the Cabinet Moun- tains as part of the Cabinet Mountains grizzly bear population augmentation program, wildlife officials announced.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks bi- ologists captured the pair of 2-year-old grizzly bears in Deadhorse Creek in the Whitefish Range. The bears are siblings and were captured in the backcountry specifically to be relocated to the Cabinet Mountains as part of an ongoing grizzly
bear population augmentation program, according to FWP.
The bears have no history of conflict with humans and have never been cap- tured before. The bears were released above Spar Lake in the Kootenai National Forest.
This program is an ongoing effort to boost and recover the grizzly bear popula- tion in the Cabinet Mountains and is a co- operative effort between FWP and the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Under the program, FWP captures bears in back- country areas of the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem and USFWS monitors the animals after their release in the Cabi- net Mountains. All grizzly bears relocated in the Cabinets are monitored with a radio collar until their collars drop off. The col- lars utilize the global positioning system (GPS) to gather locations every few hours in order to follow the bears’ movements.
The relocation of these female griz- zly bears marks the 12th and 13th griz- zly bears to be released into the Cabinet Mountains as part of this cooperative population augmentation program since 2005.
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