Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks staff euthanized a grizzly bear Thursday after it became conditioned to obtaining unsecured food and breaking into houses around Gardiner, Montana.
Before the bear’s death, FWP grizzly bear specialists and game wardens patrolled Gardiner and nearby areas. On July 18, FWP received reports that the bear had broken into a home in Maiden Basin, north of Gardiner. Staff quickly responded and dispatched the bear while it was in the Yellowstone River, according to a July 19 press release.
The carcass was recovered from the river Thursday afternoon and confirmed to be the bear involved in the recent conflicts.
No human injuries were reported.
According to FWP spokesman Morgan Jacobsen, the first sighting of the bear in Park County was June 6 and it soon became a recurring presence for residents. The grizzly’s boldness quickly escalated from rummaging through secured and unsecured trash to attempting to break into campers, putting residents at risk.
By June 12, with the bear becoming a near nightly presence, Jacobsen said FWP started setting traps to capture it. The goal at that time was to reverse its behavior through relocation, not euthanasia.
Resident Evan Stout, who heads the Bear Awareness Gardiner program, said this was not the bear’s first summer in town, but its previous visits had never posed a safety risk like they did this year.
“It just kind of escalated into a point where it had gone from being kind of like a pesky nuisance to a very serious public safety issue,” Stout told the Chronicle.
Gardiner residents met the bear with “mixed responses,” according to Stout, with some individuals blaming others for not properly securing their trash.
“Keeping our community safe and bears out of trouble is, at the end of the day, boils down to a personal responsibility,” he said.
As June turned to July and trapping efforts failed, the bear’s nightly sorties intensified. On July 1, Yellowstone Wildlife Profiles guide Angela Tempo told the Livingston Enterprise that the bear nearly came through her window around 10:30 to 11 p.m. before being scared off.
Throughout the early weeks of July, residents reported the bear staying close to the Yellowstone River and making nightly trips to Gardiner.
However, Jacobsen said that as the bear continued to evade FWP’s efforts, the strategy shifted from relocation to euthanasia due to the increased risk to resident safety from its attempted break-ins.
“The fact that the bear had very clear food conditioning behavior — habituated behavior — was coming to Gardiner every night and then you put on top of that it was breaking into home. That’s something that becomes a significant human safety issue,” he said.
As FWP increased patrols, Jacobsen said the agency quickly responded and disposed of the bear from a safe distance after it broke into a house in Maiden Basin.
Bear break-ins are not unheard of in Montana, especially in Yellowstone gateway towns like Gardiner. Jacobsen said that while the agency reports such incidents annually, human actions contribute to the bears’ presence.
“Where it becomes a problem is when we, as humans, create opportunities for them to become dependent on us for food,” he said. “Bears have an incredible spatial memory; they can remember very precise locations where they’ve had a good meal in the past and what time of year that meal was available. And that is a survival strategy that helps them in the wild. But when that becomes an artificially induced thing in and around people, it does become a problem.”
However, the problem, in most cases, is preventable.
By securely storing trash until collection day, keeping bird feeders and pet food indoors from March to December, and never feeding wildlife, Jacobsen said bears are more likely to stay in the wild.
Despite knowing it was the right decision for community safety, Stout expressed sadness over the bear’s death.
“It’s definitely a shame because the bear was just doing what bears do,” he said. “The decision to remove him, ultimately, was the right choice… I always try to remind people, even the folks who are really upset that the bear had to be removed that the worst thing in the world when it comes to grizzly bear conservation is when they hurt someone because then our social tolerance for the animal goes down.”
If residents spot a bear on their property or suspect it of tampering with trash, Jacobsen said they should alert FWP immediately. Early notification allows for behavior correction through relocation rather than euthanasia.
“By doing that, we’re keeping our community safer. We’re reducing conflicts with wildlife, and it’s also better for the wildlife themselves. They don’t come to expect a meal every time they come into town,” he said.
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