Two men who were picking mushrooms a mile north of Choteau, Montana, were charged by a grizzly bear on Wednesday. Both men shot and killed the bear at close range, according to a press release from Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks. The agency reports that the sow grizzly had one cub, which they are still trying to locate.
The two men, identified only by their first names, were rattled but uninjured after their run-in with the bear.
“I spoke to John and Justin shortly after the incident and they were both still shook up,” MFWP director Christy Clark, said in the statement. “They told me their story and it was clear it was very traumatic. What’s important here is they’re ok.”
Choteau lies within the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, which hosts a recovered population of grizzly bears that’s similar in size to the recovered population in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Together the two zones contain most of the estimated 2,200 federally-protected grizzlies in the Northern Rockies region.
MFWP reported in April that another grizzly was shot and killed by an unidentified shed hunter near Dupuyer, Montana. Dupuyer lies roughly 30 miles north of Choteau, and the shed hunter incident involved similar circumstances. The 13-year-old sow had a yearling with her, which the agency said it would not capture as it should be able to survive on its own. Because grizzlies remain federally protected, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service opened an investigation into the shooting.
Roughly a week after the Dupuyer incident, on April 21, two anglers were charged by a grizzly bear while fishing Red Rock Creek closer to West Yellowstone. One of the anglers shot at the bear in self-defense, according to MFWP, but no bear carcasses were found nearby and officials were unsure if the bear was injured.
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Another grizzly bear was shot earlier in May near Priest Lake in northern Idaho. Idaho Fish and Game said it was a case of mistaken identity. The bear hunter self-reported the error after killing the grizzly, which they had mistaken for a blackbear. The hunter has continued to cooperate with the investigation, according to officials, and could face jail time (potentially up to six months), along with fines and a possible license revocation for killing a federally-protected species.
“We will work closely with the prosecutor’s office to request that the penalties reflect the hunter’s honesty and cooperation,” IDFG spokesperson TJ Ross told the Coeur d’Alene Press earlier this month.
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