The general big game hunting season opened last Saturday with hunters across the state scouring the hills for trophy bull elk and white-tailed deer. But just as hunters are gearing up for the season, grizzly bears are preparing for winter hibernation.
It’s an unfortunate reality that occasionally hunters and grizzlies cross paths.
“Hunting season is a dynamic time of year when grizzly bears are putting on weight and hunters are in the field producing a food source with carcasses and gut piles,” said Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks bear management specialist Kevin Frey. “The bears want that food source.”
Frey said every year there are encounters between grizzlies and hunters that lead to potential human injury and bear mortality. FWP is encouraging hunters to be bear aware this hunting season by taking simple steps to minimize the chance of a grizzly bear encounter.
One of the most basic steps hunters can take to reduce the chance of an encounter is to field dress and remove game from the field as quickly as possible. That means having the proper equipment with you when you head out to hunt.
“It is the delay between shooting an elk and getting it back to your truck that can be dangerous,” Frey said on Tuesday. “If there is a delay of two or three days to get that done, there is a very good chance a grizzly is going to find it.”
Frey said a grizzly can smell a dead game animal from several miles away. During the hunting season, gut piles and carcasses are the preferred food source of Yellowstone-area bruins. The bears will even turn off other prime food sources such as whitebark pine nuts to search for gut piles during the season.
If you must leave game in the field, be certain not to surprise a bear that may have discovered it in your absence. Scout the area thoroughly before approaching your kill.
“Try to leave your animal in a place you can observe when you come back to it,” said FWP spokeswoman Mel Frost.
During the late summer and early fall grizzlies enter a period of voracious consumption known to bear biologists as hyperphagia. Hyperphagia is a physiological change that triggers increased metabolic rates intended to help bears put on weight before their winter slumber.
Frey said most grizzlies are coming off hyperphagia by the onset of hunting season, but that some grizzlies will continue to feed voluminously if they feel they need to put on more fat or if food availability remains.
As such, it’s important for hunters to be aware of food sources such as berries and roots that could appeal to bears, as well as the gut piles and carcasses hunters leave behind.
FWP research has indicted that grizzlies in search of gut piles respond to the sound of gunshots, Frey said. Using radio telemetry, FWP has tracked grizzlies travelling great distances to feed on game animals during hunting season.
“Bears are very smart and have a great memory,” Frey said. “They will return to given areas year after year if they know a food source is there. If it is fall and the elk are bugling and the campfire smoke is going and the trucks are there, those bears know what is going on just like we do.”
FWP estimates the minimum number of grizzlies in the Yellowstone area to be just over 600. Frey said the bear population has been rising steadily at a rate of four to seven percent per year since the late 1990s. Grizzlies now roam just south of Bozeman in the Gallatin Range.
Frey also said hunter-grizzly encounters have not risen significantly despite the bruins’ widening range, growing population and recent high-profile maulings.
“There is probably a slow rise in the number of bears and the number of hunters in their increasing range, but those tragic events in Cooke City and Wyoming are very unusual situations,” Frey said.
Frey said the expanding presence of grizzlies means being aware of bear sign is more critical than ever to ensure hunter safety. Evidence such as tracks, scat, torn logs, marks on trees and diggings can clue hunters to the presence of bears.
“Be aware of the environment you are hunting in,” Frey said, “from the creek bottom to the top of the forest.”
With recent snowfall and colder temperatures on the horizon, Frey said he expects grizzlies to begin denning for the winter. Grizzlies typically den at high elevations in timber on north-facing slopes. Frey said most bears will have denned for the winter by mid-November, but the possibility exists for grizzlies to remain active through December.
Through the first few days of the general hunting season there was a just single report of a hunter-grizzly bear encounter on the southern end of the Madison Range. The encounter between a grizzly and an elk hunter did not result in an injury. There have been other reports of bears observed feeding on carcasses and gut piles, but no other reported encounters.
Frey said part of the necessity for increased grizzly awareness can be attributed to the success of the grizzly bear recovery in the Rocky Mountains.
Montana’s grizzly bears were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1975. The bear was listed due to a lack of biological information on the grizzly’s population status and habitat requirements.
While the grizzly remains threatened, Frey said the public’s help has been instrumental in the species’ rebound.
“It is not just the agencies,” Frey said, “it is the people that recreate and hunt in bear habitat that have made it a success. The public has been enormously important.”
FWP’s “Golden Rules” of hunting in bear country
• Always carry bear spray, have it close at hand, and know how to use it.
• Hunt with a partner. If you have to go it alone, let someone know your detailed plans.
• While hunting, pay attention for signs of bears. Look for fresh scat and tracks, concentrations of natural foods and scavenging birds.
• Most encounters are prompted by inadvertently surprising a bear. Hunters should mentally rehearse a worst-case scenario and think through various reactions.
• After making a kill, get the carcass out of the area as quickly as possible.
• When field dressing a carcass, keep your can of bear spray within easy reach.
• If you must leave the carcass for later retrieval, place it where you can easily observe it from a distance when you return.
• Do not attempt to frighten away or haze a bear that is near or feeding on a carcass.
• Follow all U.S. Forest Service food and carcass storage regulations.
Following a few "common sense" rules will help keep you coming back to Montana year after year.
Southwestern Montana is dotted with a plethora of clear mountain stream and crystal lakes, and many of them are located a short distance the recreation centers of Bozeman and Big Sky.
