The bears you don’t hear about

Whenever a bear gets into trouble in your area, you usually hear about it.

In this Information Age, word travels quickly, whether it’s via social media, news media, or text messages. 

Tipping over garbage cans. Climbing onto porches after bird feeders. Breaking into a chicken coop. Bears looking for food are the most common conflicts in northwest Montana, and they garner a lot of attention.

Information can be educational, which is especially valuable when it comes to bear awareness. But the outsized attention that bears receive can create a few misperceptions. The biggest misperception is that most bears cannot stay out of trouble. In reality, a vast majority of bears live off the radar, avoiding conflicts with people. 

It’s important to remember Montana is bear country. All bears are potentially dangerous. Human-bear conflicts are rare, especially considering the growing and expanding human population and participation in outdoor recreation. Most human-bear conflicts involve bears seeking out unsecured food attractants, with garbage topping the list. 

In the Flathead Valley, there are numerous bears that quietly travel the valley floor or foothills undetected from spring through late fall. Even more so, some bears spend most of their time out of the den in the wildland urban interface, the zone of transition between unoccupied land and human development. 

For the most part, bears live in relative obscurity. 

For example, last year there was an adult female grizzly bear with two cubs that traveled along the Flathead River corridor and spent most of the summer in and around the Leisure Island, Owen Sowerwine area – just over a mile away from downtown Kalispell - before moving south into the Lower Valley and disappearing into the woods somewhere. 

Few sightings of these bears were reported and there were no conflicts. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks wildlife management specialists only knew about the bears because private landowners reported sightings. But nobody reported any problems.

Another example that’s pretty frequent: FWP specialists capture and radio-collar grizzly bears to monitor the population, and it’s not uncommon to catch a bear that’s 10-20 years old and has never been involved in a documented conflict. In other words, that bear lived decades before we even knew about it.

This is not infrequent, even though you might think the opposite if you only judged bears by the attention they receive. 

We can help keep bears out of trouble with a few simple steps.

Bears almost always get into trouble because they are food conditioned or habituated to people, meaning they’ve lost their natural food foraging behavior and natural fear of people, so they’re more likely to be involved in conflicts.

When a bear gets a food reward from a residence – whether it’s a bird feeder or livestock feed – they’ll keep coming back for more unless that attractant is removed or secured. And after a few rewards, that bad behavior is ingrained in that animal, meaning that bear will continue to look for those easy foods associated with people. This creates a public safety issue and it can become necessary to euthanize the animal because relocation won’t be successful.

Please report bear conflicts immediately to FWP or your tribal wildlife management agency. Addressing initial conflicts promptly can help avoid bears from becoming food conditioned or habituated.

In northwest Montana, contact:

North portion of Flathead County and Eureka area - Justine Vallieres, 406-250-1265

South portion of Flathead County - Erik Wenum, 406-250-0062

Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem and Sanders County – Garrett Tovey, 406-291-1320

Flathead Indian Reservation - Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Wildlife Management Program, 406-275-2774

Tips in bear country

Properly secure or remove food attractants, like garbage, bird feeders, domestic fruit, barbecues, and outdoor freezers.

Carry bear spray close at hand and know how to use it.

Travel in groups whenever possible and plan to be back to your vehicle in the daylight hours.

Avoid carcass sites and concentrations of ravens and other scavengers.

Watch for signs of bears such as bear scat, diggings, torn-up logs and turned over rocks, and partly consumed animal carcasses.

Make noise, especially near streams or in thick forest where hearing and visibility is limited. This can be the key to avoiding encounters. Most bears will avoid humans when they know humans are present.

Don't approach a bear.

A properly constructed electrified fence is both safe for people, livestock and pets, and has proven effective at deterring bears from human-related resources such as beehives, garbage or small livestock. For assistance or more information, contact your local FWP bear management specialist.

Learn more about bears at https://fwp.mt.gov/conservation/wildlife-management/bear.