Grizzly Bear Expansion Map

[Rockskipper]

Wouldn't coming from the GYE be a less complicated path? Plus, there are more bears there, which would be more likely to push a young boar out.

 

[Bob]

Looks like delisting is in order despite ....................

 

[Rockskipper]

Another Big Belt sighting

http://www.kbzk.com/story/36119913/...ting-confirmed-in-northern-big-belt-mountains

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has confirmed a grizzly bear sighting on a ranch in the northern Big Belt Mountains.

According to a press release, the sighting is the second in the Big Belts this summer and is likely two separate bears.

The first sighting was a 3-year-old subadult male northwest of White Sulphur Springs, confirmed through photos taken by FWP trail cameras.

The second sighting was confirmed from a video of a bear on private land in the area between the Missouri River and Hound Creek, south of Cascade.

The bear is also a subadult male.

No conflicts with the bear have been reported.

This is the third grizzly bear sighting this year in areas the bears have not roamed in almost a century.

The press release states that in June, a pair of grizzlies apparently came down the Teton River from the Rocky Mountain Front and ended up near Stanford.

The young bears were captured and euthanized after they preyed on livestock.

In recent years, bears have traveled river corridors such as the Sun, Marias, Dearborn and Teton east from the Rocky Mountain Front looking for natural foods.

As grizzly bear numbers in the western half of Montana, from the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in the southwest to Northern Continental Divide population, continue to increase, their range is expanding.

According to the press release, it's possible for grizzlies to be found anywhere in the western half of Montana, from the mountains, to river corridors, to even the prairie regions.

 

[SteveR]

The grizzly have been extending their range eastward from the mountains towards the prairie in southern Alberta as well. Which was really part of their habitat prior to settlement. A few years ago I was working on a new home (I'm a carpenter/cabinetmaker) in a populated area south of Calgary that is a mix of country estates and mostly open farmland, with scattered aspen groves- much more a prairie environment than foothills. Not what I would usually consider as grizzly country. One morning as I was inside trimming a window, a mature grizzly went calmly by outside, proceeded to graze not more than 100 feet away, and eventually wandered off. At the end of the day I went to the nearby neighbours to warn them, and found out from them that it had been sighted many times for 2 summers, but had not been a problem in any way. Grizzly have also been reported in recent years from the Writing on Stone provincial park area near the Montana border which is WAY east out in the prairie, but has the Milk River as a corridor from the west.