Mostly Clear, 56° F
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department captured one grizzly bear outside of Thermopolis on Friday after it killed cattle and captured another south of Cody on Sunday after it began showing signs of …
This item is available in full to subscribers.
The Powell Tribune has expanded its online content. To continue reading, you will need to either log in to your subscriber account, or purchase a subscription.
If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free web account by clicking here.
If you already have a web account, but need to reset it, you can do so by clicking here.
If you would like to purchase a subscription click here.
Please log in to continue |
|
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department captured one grizzly bear outside of Thermopolis on Friday after it killed cattle and captured another south of Cody on Sunday after it began showing signs of becoming habituated to people.
Both bears were relocated to areas east of Yellowstone National Park.
An adult male bear was captured northwest of Thermopolis for killing cattle on private lands. In cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Shoshone National Forest, the bear was relocated to the Fox Creek drainage, approximately 50 miles northwest of Cody.
Meanwhile, a subadult male was preemptively captured after displaying habituated behavior along a state highway south of Cody.
In cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Shoshone National Forest, the bear was relocated to the Mormon Creek drainage approximately 5 miles from the East Entrance of Yellowstone.
Those release sites were chosen due to the lack of human presence in the area. “Consultation with the appropriate personnel and agencies occurs to minimize the chance of future conflicts and maximize the survival potential of the relocated grizzly bear,” the Game and Fish said.
They’ll attempt to capture a bear only “when other options are exhausted or unattainable.”
“Once the animal is captured, all circumstances are taken into account when determining if the individual should be relocated or removed from the population,” the department says.
Bears considered a threat to human safety are not relocated.
So far in 2019, 16 grizzly bears have been removed from the population — that is, euthanized — in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. That includes 15 bears in Wyoming and one in Montana, according to data from the U.S. Geologic Survey.
Game and Fish officials continue to stress the importance of the public’s responsibility in bear management and the importance of keeping all attractants (food items, garbage, horse feed, bird seed and others) unavailable to bears. Reducing attractants available to bears reduces human-bear conflicts.
