Grizzly bear relocated from area west of Thermopolis

At the direction of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department captured and relocated an adult male grizzly bear on Friday, Sept. 20, as well as a sub-adult male grizzly bear on Sept. 22.

The adult male bear was captured for killing cattle on private lands northwest of Thermopolis. In cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Shoshone National Forest, the bear was relocated to the Fox Creek drainage approximately fifty miles northwest of Cody.

Luke Ellsbury, the large carnivore biologist in the Cody region for Wyoming Game and Fish, said the Bear was located up on Owl Creek and had killed at least four head of cattle from one landowner. The bear was a five-year-old male, Ellsbury said, that had never been caught. He further explained captured bears are tagged, tattooed and chipped, and adult bears also have radio collars put on.

This particular bear was caught in a large box trap and taken to Cody, where it was immobilized while all the identifying work was done.

The sub-adult male was preemptively captured and moved for habituated behavior along a state highway south of Cody. In cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Shoshone National Forest, the bear was relocated to the Mormon Creek drainage approximately five miles from the east entrance of Yellowstone National Park.

Bears that are considered a threat to human safety are not relocated. Grizzly bear relocation is a management tool afforded to large carnivore biologists to minimize conflicts between humans and grizzly bears and is critical to the management of the population. When other options are exhausted or unattainable, Game and Fish will attempt to capture the bear. Once the animal is captured, all circumstances are taken into account when determining if the individual should be relocated or removed from the population. If relocation is warranted, the selection of a relocation site is determined taking into consideration the age, sex, and type of conflict the bear was involved in as well as potential human activity in the vicinity of the relocation site. These particular site were chosen due to the lack of human presence in the area. Consultation with the appropriate personnel and agencies occurs to minimize the chance of future conflicts and maximize the survival potential of the relocated grizzly bear. Bears that are deemed an immediate threat to human safety are not released back into the wild.

Bears are relocated in accordance with state and federal law and regulation. Game and Fish continues to stress the importance of the public’s responsibility in bear management and the importance of keeping all attractants (food items, garbage, horse feed, bird seed and others) unavailable to bears. Reducing attractants available to bears reduces human-bear conflicts. For more information on grizzly bear management and reducing the potential for conflicts please visit the Bear Wise Wyoming page: https://wgfd.wyo.gov/Wildlife-in-Wyoming/More-Wildlife/Large-Carnivore/Grizzly-Bear-Management/Bear-Wise-Wyoming

For further information please contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Grizzly Bear Recovery Coordinator, Hilary Cooley, at (406) 243-4903.