GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A grizzly bear took refuge in a deserted homestead building Saturday after being chased or hazed west of Conrad, prompting an investigation by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The incident occurred as a higher-than-usual number of grizzly bears from the Rocky Mountain Front continue to disperse onto the prairie this spring.
Concern about the bears showing up near communities such as Conrad and Valier has prompted FWP to schedule a public meeting May 24 in Valier to discuss information and education about grizzly bears moving farther east onto the plains from established territory closer to the Rocky Mountains.
Tracks indicated that the bear that holed up in the abandoned farm building had been chased by a pickup truck, and dogs also were on its tail following it through a muddy slough at one point, said Mike Madel, a grizzly bear management specialist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
“This bear was totally tuckered out,” Madel said.
The bear, intimidated and exhausted, was hiding inside an old granary building when FWP officials arrived, Madel said.
Brian Lakes, an investigator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said he is investigating the incident for a possible Endangered Species Act violation.
As a threatened species, grizzly bears are federally protected and it is illegal to chase or harass them.
It’s unusual for a bear to escape into a deserted building, Madel said.
FWP was notified that the bear was seen going through an open door of the building, which is 12 miles west of Conrad at the Mitch Kellogg homestead west of Conrad.
“He was just sound asleep in the corner of the granary,” Catherine Kellogg said.
She and her husband, Mitch Kellogg, arrived at 7:30 p.m. Mitch snapped a photograph of the slumbering bear.
“My fear is somebody is going to get hurt,” Mitch Kellogg said of the bears showing up in farm country.
As near as he can tell, neighbors were pushing the bear out of yards earlier in the day and the bear headed cross-country before taking sanctuary in the old wooden granary.
“I don’t know if chasing is the right word,” Kellogg said. “I think people were trying to haze it out of their yards.”
The building has been abandoned for years and doesn’t have grain it it now. Kellogg and his siblings grew up on the site, which is now abandoned.
The grizzly was a 4- to 5-year-old male weighing around 450 pounds.
Madel and Mike Krings, a Conrad-area FWP game warden, decided it was too dangerous to attempt to set a trap at the building because it would have required them to work so close to the bear. It was gone by Sunday morning and probably left once darkness arrived.
A male grizzly had been previously observed with a female with two yearlings. Madel suspects that the male chased into the building was the same bear observed with the female. It’s breeding season for bears.
FWP officials have been responding to numerous grizzly observations on the plains near Conrad and Valier far from the Rocky Mountain Front this year as grizzlies emerged early from their dens due to the mild winter and the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem population of 1,000 bears continues to grow.
And they’re hungry, Madel said, noting the residents should be mindful to keep dog and cat food, garbage and other sources of protein under wraps.
“Bears are really searching now,” Madel said.
FWP has traps set north of Bynum and north of Choteau for bears that got into conflict on farms and ranches over food. The bear that was chased has no history of conflict with people, Madel said.
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