Problems with female griz

The Trailwatcher/G. George Ostrom

Grizzlies remain in the news, so I decided to run this surprising report from Nov. 10, 1999:

To avoid emotional attachments, I thought grizzly biologists are supposed to name bears after lawyers; however , I don't know any lawyers named Tillie, Star or Cory. Last week it was my privilege to fly grizzly patrol check on seven radio collared bears. Contract pilot of the Cessna 185 was David Hoerner, owner of Eagle Aviation, and in the co-pilot seat was veteran Bear Manager Tim Manley. They were firm but polite in issuing my assignment. My job was "back seat observer" and I could talk on the intercom … "if I spotted a grizzly."

With the directional antenna on the wing, we picked up our first radio signal on the back of Big Mountain in Canyon Creek, an unnamed 3-year-old female. I silently named her Gondola. She was in dense timber and we were unable to make a "visual," even though we had her exact location, flew low and circled.

We headed north along rugged comb of the Whitefish Range. Half way to Canada we picked up signal from Lacey. This 6-year-old was captured on Lacy Lane at Whitefish and transplanted to Frozen Lake on the Canadian border Sept. 21. She was back on City Beach in one week. It's only 50 airline miles but with the ups, downs and around peaks, it's an awesome trip. Returned to Frozen Lake, Lacy was given a deer carcass to keep her there. Didn't work. We picked up her signal in a draw below cliffs at the head of Blue Sky Creek, 10 miles south of the border. (She was back in Haskill Creek by Saturday feeding on a dead cow). Lacy hasn't had cubs, but she could be pregnant. Biologists are hoping they don't have "to remove her from the environment."

The next lady griz on our Monday flight was 11-year-old Star. We found her in a high "hanging garden" near Long Bow Lake in Glacier Park. Tim said she hibernated there last winter and expected the same this year. Again we couldn't actually see her but kept circling those towering peaks many times. Star showed up near a human settlement last year with three cubs that disappeared. They could have been killed by other bears or wolves. Manley says in cases of severe food shortage, female grizzlies will desert one or more cubs – a scenario new to me.

We soared south on Livingston Range to view azure blue smoke from the Anaconda Fire filling valleys of the North Fork. Back lit by afternoon sun, the sight was surreal and entrancing.

Clearing lofty Mount Longfellow, we banked across the awesome east face of Heaven's Peak. Black fire scars showed clearly on West Flattop. Over McDonald Creek, we got a signal from old friend "Tillie". Biologists call this 11-year-old the "Lake Five Bear." She lost two cubs born four years ago, didn't have any in '97 then showed up at West Glacier with two in 1998. Both of those died somehow and she is alone again. Now she was in thick trees off Sun Highway near Johns Lake. Manley says she spent late summer eating huckleberries on the Belton Hills.

Flying down Lake Mac, we picked up a beam from 8-year-old Cory, caught earlier near Coram. She had two cubs this spring, but they were hit by a train on the railroad bridge. The Burlington Northern engineer said he saw them but he couldn't stop. (A female cub of Tillie's was killed on the tracks near there in 1995.) Cory was in timber east of Coram out of sight. I was discouraged.

Manley said they usually make a visual on a third of the located bears during a flight. We batted zilch.

Flying west out of Bad Rock we swung south along the Flathead Range crest to Wildcat Lake, looking for two orphans from the shooting of a mother griz in Jewel Basin last spring. Couldn't find them. Manley refers to them as the Ferndale bears. I silently named the female Fern and the male Dale. After getting in people trouble, they were taken east of the mountains, but Dale came back on his own and had to be trapped again near Essex. Fern went out on the plains near Choteau tearing up beehives for honey, so she was brought back. Both were released the last of September on different days along Trail Creek in the North Fork. Manley located Fern in the Starr Meadows area last Wednesday. They don't know where Dale is right now.

Three of the known female grizzlies discussed here lost seven new cubs last year. Maybe some will have cubs next year, maybe not. Gondola is not too likely. Lacey could. Tillie may be due again. Fern is too young. Cory and Star are not good candidates until 2001.

There are strange elements working here in the grizzly bear world that puzzle biologists. I would have explained my theory to Manley and Hoerner, but they had told me I should only talk … "if I saw a grizzly."