Grizzlies nabbed about 100 chickens so far this spring

Bear managers across the Flathead are continuing to have problems with grizzly bears and chickens. To date, grizzlies have dined on about 100 chickens in the valley, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks bear specialist Tim Manley reported last week.

Manley said he helped landowners in the Flathead Valley install seven temporary electric fences around chicken coops over the past three weeks. Chickens have grown popular with homeowners. Bears, however, are attracted to the feed and the chickens as an easy meal.

The best defense is prevention — an electric fence around a chicken coop usually keeps bears at bay and is cost effective. Defenders of Wildlife has a cost-share program that offers up to $500 to people who purchase electric fences to protect livestock from grizzly bears, Manley said.

Manley said he’s caught and moved three grizzlies so far this spring. In addition, two grizzly bear shootings in the region are under investigation.

He said he knew of 14 grizzlies in the Flathead Valley, from Columbia Falls to Ferndale. While most of the bear activity has been in the foothills below the Swan Range, one bear was captured in the Pinnacle area in the Middle Fork after it visited porches of residences there.

Residents, even if those living in town, need to be bear aware now that bears are awake — bring in pet foods, clean up bird feeders and secure garbage.

On the Blackfeet Reservation, biologist Dan Carney has a different problem — a 600-pound plus male grizzly spent this spring killing livestock. The bear, caught on camera, had a big belly that nearly dragged on the ground.

But he was also wise to traps and snares and would kill a cow, feed on it that night and then be gone the next day, Carney noted. The bear has since moved north to Canada and is causing problems in Alberta, he said.

Carney had another interesting facet of bear news — a sow grizzly and her cubs denned in the prairie in a big hole at least 15 miles east of the mountains.

Carney said that was the farthest from the mountains that he’s ever seen a den. The bear was collared and is part of a population trend study.

Grizzlies living east of the Rocky Front are usually larger than their mountain cousins. They feed on dead livestock in the spring and eat choke cherries and other berries in the river bottoms during the fall.

Manley and Carney presented their reports at the spring Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem meeting last week in Hungry Horse.