The Northern Continental Divide Grizzly Bear Study that has been conducted by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks for the past 8 years is claiming a 3% annual climb in Griz numbers....Plans to transplant both a female and male bruin into a diminished Bear Domain in the Cabinet Mtns has been delayed due to the deep snow that still cloaks this region

New bears added to griz trend study

 JIM MANN/

An ongoing grizzly bear population trend study got off to a good start this year with three bears being captured and fitted with radio collars in the North Fork Flathead drainage.But that's just the start of trapping efforts that will carry on for the next few months throughout the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, which stretches from the mountains of southern Alberta to the southern end of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex."We have a whole bunch of radios all over the ecosystem," said Rick Mace, the project leader and a research biologist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. "Every year, collars fall off or they fail or bears die."The study's protocol keeps Mace and his crew working to maintain at least 25 radio collars throughout the ecosystem every year. The aim is to keep tabs on female bears for reproduction and mortality to determine whether the population is growing or declining.

The study is in its eighth year, and it has concluded that the grizzly bear population is growing at a rate of 3 percent a year. That statistical calculation is explained in a paper that has been accepted for publication in an upcoming edition of the prestigious Journal of Wildlife Management
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Mace said he is pleased with the three captures in the North Fork, considering that the high country still is inaccessible to trapping crews. "I think the big issue here is that we've had a record-breaking snowpack that's been very slow to melt and it's just been restricting us in where we're able to trap," he said. "You can't get into the high country yet, but we've been able to trap low in the Swan Valley and low in the North Fork."

Mace said the trappers he supervises will be on the lookout this year for bears that qualify to be transplanted to the Cabinet Mountains in Lincoln County, a separate ecosystem with an imperiled grizzly bear population that has been supplemented with bears from the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem for several years. This year, the plan is to relocate a female bear and possibly a male bear to the Cabinets, Mace said, but that can't happen for the next few weeks because there is lingering snow in areas where bears typically are released.