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Cabinet- Yaak Update September 2007
By Wanye Kasworm, USFWS
We have been receiving a few sightings of a grizzly bear family group in the area just southeast of Noxon during early September, 2007. We responded by talking to several residents and handing out some materials about bear safety and tips on living in bear habitat.
However, last weekend (9/15-16/07) a resident reported the bears eating fruit at trees in his yard for successive nights. It was decided to attempt capture of these animals as a preemptive move. None of the residents reported that these animals had gotten any human foods, pet foods, and that the animals ran away when confronted by people. Other reports were associated with these bears feeding on apples and plums.
T raps were set Sunday evening (9/16) and the adult female was captured the first evening and the cubs were caught the second evening. The bears had no marks associated with any previous captures. The adult female was judged to be 8-10 years of age and weighed 260 pounds. She had a male and female cub that weighed about 80 pounds each. All bears were in good health.
The female was fitted with a GPS radio collar and was released on September 19 in upper Marten Creek with her two cubs. She will be monitored frequently to determine her movements. She was captured south of the Clark Fork River and we believe the release site may be within or adjacent to her home range. Genetic samples from these animals will be analyzed and compared to our genetic database to determine any relationships, but these results will not be available until next year.
 Our berry crop monitoring indicated a good crop of huckleberries in many places, but the crop was earlier than recent years probably because of the hot, dry conditions this past summer. Many high elevation site berry patches have either already ripened and disappeared, or did not produce well this year. Normally bears would be feeding at some of these higher elevation sites, but without those berry patches more bears are being seen in the valleys looking for other foods.
All residents are urged to be vigilant about attractants for bears. Store garbage in secure containers or in your garage. Feed pets indoors or if you feed outdoors, only feed what your pet can consume in 15 minutes. Remove any bird feeders until after bears have denned. Pick any fruit on trees and promptly remove any fruit that falls to the ground.
We are continuing to look for a candidate Cabinet Mountains augmentation bear in the North Fork of the Flathead. The individual must be a young female with no history of conflicts with humans to be considered for a transplant to the Cabinet Mountains. We will continue this effort until early October. The bears released in 2005 and 2006 are still being monitored by their radio collars. The bear from 2005 has developed a home range north of Keeler Creek and the bear from 2006 has primarily stayed south of Keeler Creek. We have had no public reports of sightings of either of these animals since their release.
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