How a local grizzly bear raised three offspring amid human presence

When grizzly bears make the news, the headlines are often negative. Dorothy’s story, however, is a positive one, so far. Dorothy is an 18-year-old female grizzly widely known throughout Bigfork and Ferndale. For the last two years, Dorothy has been accompanied by her three offspring, and since male grizzly bears do not provide parental rearing, she has been tasked with finding enough food for herself and her cubs. She has managed to do so while defeating the odds of cub mortality (about two out of five cubs survive their first year of life), all while generally staying out of trouble.

What allows Dorothy and her family to live peacefully in this wildlife-urban interface? In large part, residents who are willing to secure bear attractants. Credit is also due to officials like Erik Wenum with MT Fish, Wildlife, and Parks who are proactive and responsive when managing human-bear conflict.

Bears are “single response” learners, meaning they learn from a single experience. Finding, and remembering, where they can find food is critical to their survival. If they break into a trash can and are rewarded with high-calorie foods, they are likely to investigate the next trash can they see, and so forth. If human-caused attractants are easily obtained enough times, a bear can learn to associate food resources with humans. This association can make them a potential threat to human safety. 

The same single-response learning is why bear-resistant trash cans and electric fencing are effective. If a bear attempts to break into a bear-resistant container but is unsuccessful, that experience is referred to as negative reinforcement. Likewise, if a bear approaches a chicken coop and receives a jolt of electricity, it is safe to say that the bear won’t be sniffing out chickens on the menu any time soon. Bear-resistant trash containers and electric fences are two tools in the proverbial toolbox that have stood the test of time because they are simple yet highly effective. 

Now, back to our bear Dorothy, who has maintained appropriate foraging behaviors to keep herself and her cubs well-fed. This season her cubs will naturally disperse and be on their own for the first time. They will likely remain resident bears and move throughout Ferndale and Bigfork, as was taught to them by their mother. Dorothy has also taught them that the occasional human attractant - if left unattended - can make for an easy meal, and this is what troubles bear managers like Wenum. “Dorothy I’m not so worried about,” he explains, “it’s her cubs that will likely be in search of an easy meal.”

This past winter was mild with a low snowpack, leading Wenum to caution,” if we don’t get a long, wet spring, we are likely to experience poor green-up and less-than-desirable huckleberry production.” This will put a strain on bears, who rely heavily on grasses, roots, and berries to make up a hefty portion of their diet. When natural food resources are sparse, bears tend to end up in backyards looking for an easy meal.

The unfortunate truth is that if we are facing a season of increased conflict because of low natural food production, these sexually immature bears are considered low-value to the overall population—biologically speaking. In other words, if Dorothy’s kids become the neighborhood riffraff as they navigate their awkward teenage years, managers may be forced to prioritize nonlethal management efforts on bears of higher reproductive value and lethally remove the adolescents from the population altogether. 

The good news is that we humans play a significant role in the success of Dorothy and her offspring when we prevent bears from receiving an unnatural food reward by getting into trash, depredating on our chickens, or decimating our apple orchards. 

Swan Valley Bear Resources (SVBR), a collaborative group that promotes coexistence between humans and bears, provides resources to anyone in the Bigfork and Ferndale communities. SVBR loans out bear-resistant garbage containers for free indefinitely and offers a cost-share program for electric fencing around attractants such as small livestock and orchards. We provide free property consultations and will design a fence to suit the needs of the landowner and maintain proper specifications to deter grizzly bears. Swan Valley Connections’ trained staff will even install the electric fence, free of charge. Call Swan Valley Connections at (406) 754-3137 to learn more about how you can obtain resources made available to you by Swan Valley Bear Resources. To report bear sightings or conflicts, contact Erik Wenum at (406) 250-0062.

We have all just celebrated the hard work and dedication of mothers this past Mother’s Day. We ask you to consider reducing the challenges our wild (and maternal) counterparts navigate to raise young on our shared landscape. Together we can help to ensure Dorothy’s offspring make it into the denning season well-fed from natural food sources.

*Since writing this article, Wenum has reported that Dorothy and her offspring got into a minor conflict with unsecured chicken feed left in the bed of a vehicle. Wenum was able to capture and collar Dorothy and two of her three offspring. The uncollared adolescent appears to have left the area through natural dispersal. The others were released in the Hungry Horse area and noted that Dorothy is no longer rearing her offspring. The two collared adolescents have made their way back over the Swan range and were last reported to be around the Lake Blaine and foothills areas. 

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