Greetings, Beacon nation! A Swan Valley landowner shot and killed a male grizzly on the night of June 3 after he said the bear charged him when he stepped outside his residence near Condon to investigate “disturbances with his livestock and dogs.”

“He walked outside onto his property to check on his animals and that’s when the bear charged at him,” according to a June 6 press release from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP). “The man shot and killed the bear. Thankfully, he was uninjured during the encounter.”

It was the sixth grizzly bear mortality in Montana this year, and the third time that wildlife officials assigned “defense of life” as the primary cause of a grizzly death, with the most recent incidents occurring less than two weeks apart. A case reported as self-defense in April, involving a shed-antler hunter in north central Montana who said he shot a charging grizzly near Dupuyer, remains under investigation. The other three mortality types include a case of mistaken identity, a vehicle collision and an agency-initiated conflict removal involving livestock.

I’m Tristan Scott, here to break down the state’s human-caused grizzly bear mortalities that state wildlife officials have reported so far in 2025.

Human-bear conflicts are more common in the spring, when black bear hunters and antler-shed collectors head to the backcountry just as grizzly bears are becoming active on the landscape. It’s also a season when cases of mistaken identity between grizzlies and black bears increase, as well as self-defense killings, prompting wildlife officials and bear advocates to ramp up their education and outreach efforts on behalf of both bears and public safety.

But with self-defense cases representing half of Montana’s grizzly bear mortalities reported so far in 2025, the state wildlife agency that tracks grizzly mortalities is demonstrating a greater degree of sympathy toward hunters and landowners claiming self-defense than it has historically. On May 21, for example, when FWP announced that two mushroom hunters had shot and killed a female grizzly bear north of Choteau after the sow reportedly charged them at close range, the press release included a quote from the agency’s director, Christy Clark, who personally spoke to both men by telephone immediately after the incident, referring to them on a first-name basis in her statement.

“I spoke to John and Justin shortly after the incident and they were both still shook up,” Clark said in the prepared statement. “They told me their story and it was clear it was very traumatic. What’s important here is they’re ok.”

The press release included a photo of the men on a cell phone, apparently speaking to Clark, as well as a caption that read: “Hours after their harrowing experience, John and Justin share their story with Director Christy Clark via phone.”

That verbiage was absent from last year’s release about a 72-year-old man hospitalized after a sow grizzly with cubs attacked him as he was preparing to pick huckleberries along North Fork Road north of Columbia Falls. The man had been waiting for his grandchildren to arrive when he began scouting at the edge of the timber, according to Outdoor Life, which described the state’s press release as “terse” and added details.

“He was able to retrieve his pistol and shoot nine rounds at the bear, striking it twice, and killing it,” according to the story. “Based on their condition and the abundance of huckleberries, the three cubs remained on the landscape per FWP policy. The man was injured but survived.”

Grizzly bear mortalities initially reported as “defense of life” often require further investigation before wildlife officials make an official determination. For example, last year in the Flathead Valley, of the four grizzly bears that were fatally shot, two remain under investigation while a hunter mistook a third as a black bear, according to FWP’s annual Region 1 Bear and Mountain Lion Report for 2024.

As bear-human conflict experts with FWP equip more communities with bear-resistant infrastructure to avoid conflicts — including electric fencing, carcass management, range riding, and education and outreach — agency officials hope the trend continues, with the nonprofit Heart of the Rockies Institute administering $5 million in funding for conflict prevention in Montana through July 2027.

I’m Tristan Scott, here to deliver the rest of today’s Daily Roundup.

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