Grizzly Attack in Wyoming

[MTLabrador]

It's seems funny to me in the last decade that the game and fish promote healthy populations of bears in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem but manage them to stay out of the big horns. The Big Horns would be perfect habitat for grizzlies, albeit human encounters would go WAY up and they would probably have an impact on the black bear populations. The biologists I know in Cody have said the amount of grizzlies they catch on that side of the basin near the big horns has steadily increased in the last five years. Meaning from zero captures to one or two a year. It would not surprise me at all if the bears manage to have a resident presence on the big horns in the next decade. If we were serious about the conservation of the species I would love to see grizzlies on that side of the basin. Too many special interests don't want them there though. Exact same thing applies with wolves.

I agree the habitat certainly exists for grizzlies in the Bighorns, but there are a lot more people recreating in the Bighorns than in the Absarokas, especially in the more roaded areas.

There’s already constant black bear conflicts in the Bighorns, and there will be a lot of human conflict if/when grizzlies become established. There are occasional wolves in the Bighorns now.

 

[sep0667]

I'm not familiar with the area, but was just in Yellowstone/tetons a couple weeks ago. If they are beginning to trap grizzlies east of Powell etc could one suspect there are already a grizzly or a few in the bighorns? I can't imagine they are able to trap every grizz that is moving east.

 

[Steve Petersen]

Should they get delisted again. They either need to expand the management area of protection or classify any grizz outside that area as fare game and allowed to be hunted.

 

[ClearCreek]

I'm not familiar with the area, but was just in Yellowstone/tetons a couple weeks ago. If they are beginning to trap grizzlies east of Powell etc could one suspect there are already a grizzly or a few in the bighorns? I can't imagine they are able to trap every grizz that is moving east.

To date there has not been a documented case of a grizzly bear in the Bighorn Mountains. There have been claims of grizzly bears being spotted, but when those claims are investigated it turns out to be another critter, most of the time a cinnamon phase black bear.

I was in Yellowstone a month ago and a beautiful cinnamon phase black bear was along the road near the Lamar Canyon. Probably 20-30 people watching it and they all thought it was a grizzly bear.

ClearCreek

 

[greatwhitebuffalo]

To date there has not been a documented case of a grizzly bear in the Bighorn Mountains. There have been claims of grizzly bears being spotted, but when those claims are investigated it turns out to be another critter, most of the time a cinnamon phase black bear.

I was in Yellowstone a month ago and a beautiful cinnamon phase black bear was along the road near the Lamar Canyon. Probably 20-30 people watching it and they all thought it was a grizzly bear.

ClearCreek

Yes. I was up there today and passed a group watching a color phase black bear. I didn't stop to talk, but am sure that it was easily mistaken for a grizzly by at least a few. I had to do a double take myself.