MT Grizzly Bears Killed

[shoots-straight]

So what kind of land does your house sit on?

Wild, my house sits on the East side of Hamilton, a long ways from any timber of any kind. There's 0% chance of large predators coming to my house, ever.

BTW, I'm a 5th Generation Montanan, thought I'd throw that in before challenged.

 

[shoots-straight]

Raising chickens is going to draw in Predators. Everyone knows that but the chicken farmers. Might as well throw out a bait pile and wonder WTF when bears show up.

 

[7Remmy]

Raising chickens is going to draw in Predators. Everyone knows that but the chicken farmers. Might as well throw out a bait pile and wonder WTF when bears show up.

I should be so lucky. I'm a long way from MT,but my wife wanted to raise chickens. I said "Sure,why not". Figuring all the time it would be a good way to boost my coyote numbers. We have run 30 to 40 free range chickens here on our place for 5 years now. Not one has been taken or killed by a predator. No fox. No coyote. No nuttin'. They are in the hen house at night,but you would have thought at least one coyote would come a callin' at least once. We hear yotes in the summer after pupping time. Usually after midnight. I can't figure it out. So much for my yote luring program.

 

[Nameless Range]

I live in a rural area in Montana and I have chickens.

Grizzlies pass through from time to time, but there are all type predators for my chickens to worry about - coyotes, bobcats, black bears, predatory birds, etc.

Whether or not griz have been absent for decades from the area where these chickens were killed is irrelevant. If elk don't historically graze where I live, and they move in, does their absence at the time of my decision to build a garden justify my shooting them when they start eating it? Do the rules change if it is a protected carnivore?

Nope.

If, like a neighbor of mine, I wake up one morning and a hawk is perched on my fence munching on one of my hens am I justified in slaying the bastard? If it's a black bear can I? Should I? I think people are acting silly about this because it was a griz.

Individual bears can certainly become habituated to human activities and thus, become "problem bears". Those are a different issue and there are different legal avenues to deal with them. The dude who killed this bear was not justified in doing so. All sorts of predators are a threat to chickens and were to his. Some you can kill to your heart's content, some you can't. Chicken owners need to deal with that. No really, it comes with the territory of owning fowl in country filled with all manner of predator.

Bringing up bears attacking dogs or people is irrelevant. For a variety of reasons, we as humans place different values on different species - it's fact. So yeah, if a bear is mauling my daughter I'll kill it,maybe even my dog, but if it's killing my hens I'll go spend 10 bucks at Murdochs and buy four more.

Sooner or later we'll be hunting them, which will be a conservation success story. But they'll still be killing chickens.

 

[JLS]

BTW, I'm a 5th Generation Montanan, thought I'd throw that in before challenged.

I always find these comments amusing. No offense Robert, because I assume you are preemptively curtailing the accusation of being a transplant.

That said, I highly doubt that the native sons of any state are exempt from idiocy. A person without common sense and intelligence is, quite simply a dumbass, which I have found to be completely independent of the state listed on their birth certificate.

 

[Highwood]

I think Grizz should be managed by hunting, Permits numbers available in areas according to numbers of problem bears. Keep the Grizzlies afraid of humans and it is a win for the bears, a win for human residents.

 

[shoots-straight]

Well said nameless! JLS yep, you know how these predator threads roll.

 

[RobG]

Wild, my house sits on the East side of Hamilton, a long ways from any timber of any kind. There's 0% chance of large predators coming to my house, ever.

BTW, I'm a 5th Generation Montanan, thought I'd throw that in before challenged.

I can't tell if you are joking about the 0%. I'd say in your lifetime they will be getting into your neighbor's chickens as they are regularly showing up near Great Falls now, and I am also a 5th generation Montanan thus equally credible.

Look how far they wander (from http://fwp.mt.gov/fwpDoc.html?id=52067, the last one wandered 1200 miles from June 2010 until Sep. 2011). That doc also has a pic of one around Georgetown Lake so they are heading your way.

 

[shoots-straight]

Rob, those areas that Griz traveled are in areas that have cover, and route that they can move without detection.

I thought about giving it a1% chance but rounded down.

 

[RobG]

Rob, those areas that Griz traveled are in areas that have cover, and route that they can move without detection.

Not really regarding the cover. That area on the west side of Flathead is pretty open, not to mention the lake itself. Plus http://missoulian.com/news/state-an...cle_b056513e-a47a-11df-8628-001cc4c002e0.html (More F'n chickens).

But I see you basically live in Hamilton not really east of it. However, I could easily see them in the field east of you. They could easily walk up the Root too. (FWIW there was a G bear running around downtown Bigfork a couple decades ago). What is amazing is how close they get to houses and generally don't bother anyone (unless you have F'n chickens) so if they were in your neighborhood you probably wouldn't know.

 

[shoots-straight]

Not really regarding the cover. That area on the west side of Flathead is pretty open, not to mention the lake itself. Plus http://missoulian.com/news/state-an...cle_b056513e-a47a-11df-8628-001cc4c002e0.html (More F'n chickens).

But I see you basically live in Hamilton not really east of it. However, I could easily see them in the field east of you. They could easily walk up the Root too. (FWIW there was a G bear running around downtown Bigfork a couple decades ago). What is amazing is how close they get to houses and generally don't bother anyone (unless you have F'n chickens) so if they were in your neighborhood you probably wouldn't know.

One Griz walked the length of the Root a few years ago, (on the East side) but if you saw the lands north and east of me, in person, you would know why it's less than 1% chance. Also the area up at Flathead is rolly polly, and does have cover. They can get obviously hide there. Not east of me, unless you get in the hills. Just to the north of me is the airport, and then farther east of there is Richy rich subdivision and golf course.

 

[RobG]

Like I mentioned, you don't really live east of Hamilton, you are a City Boy. .

 

[mdhunter61]

Numbers are available. Doubt the folks that collected the data are purposely underestimating.

There could be a difference between the numbers that are collected, and the numbers that are published or made available to the public. For quite a few years the grizzly population that was published for the Kenai area of Alaska seemed really low to most of the residents who lived in the area, and a lot of people suspected that the numbers being published were artificially low (i.e., perhaps being massaged). Suddenly in the past few years the published numbers have come in higher, and a limited hunting season is now in place. Just saying its possible that the raw data isn't being shared.

 

[jryoung]

Methinks if a grizz ever got wind of the exhaust kicking out of Nap's during the peak of a lunch rush there might be chaos in the streets of Hamilton.

 

[RobG]

Hey Robert - check this one out. http://www.dailyinterlake.com/membe...cle_85c2da82-1203-11e4-bc79-001a4bcf887a.html

As far as I can tell the picture was taken about where the red arrow is.

I can't believe the number of incidents in the last few years up there. Not sure what is going on...

I have to go hike the Bridgers now before the damn G-bears move in there.

 

[mtmuley]

shoots, remember about 10 or 12 years ago a griz made it down to the Sunset Bench area? If it happens again, it's closer to me than you. Could happen. mtmuley Thanks jryoung. You just decided dinner for tonite.

 

[shoots-straight]

Hey Robert - check this one out. http://www.dailyinterlake.com/membe...cle_85c2da82-1203-11e4-bc79-001a4bcf887a.html

As far as I can tell the picture was taken about where the red arrow is.

I can't believe the number of incidents in the last few years up there. Not sure what is going on...

I have to go hike the Bridgers now before the damn G-bears move in there.

Remember Rob, we don't have a population like NW Montana does. OK I'll give you a 2% chance of one in my yard.

Mt, yes I wrote about that Grizzly.

 

[sbhooper]

The only way to cure the grizzly problem, is to get rid of the people. Since that unfortunately won't happen, the grizzly has got to be controlled. They were wiped out for a reason and need to be tightly limited, now that there is a yuppy under every pine tree.

 

[shootbrownelk]

.280 Remington is correct. Deal with the bears...it's their turf. Or move, they can't.

 

[tjones]

They were wiped out for a reason and need to be tightly limited, now that there is a yuppy under every pine tree.

Lots of critters were wiped out for what our granddaddies thought was a "reason".