USFWS Investigating Shootings
Of Three Grizzlies In Idaho

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials are investigating the deaths this fall of grizzly bears in Idaho.

A sow and her yearling female cub were reported shot to death in northeastern Idaho. About the same time, a male grizzly was reported shot to death in the northwestern part of the state.

A bowhunter found the sow and her yearling female cub Oct. 4 in the Rock Creek drainage on Sawtelle Peak near Henry's Lake.

Agency officers say a preliminary examination indicates the bears had been shot with a firearm, but there was no evidence that the killing was in self-defense.

Chuck Schwartz, leader of the USGS Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, said the seven year-old female grizzly was collared in the fall of 1999 as part of a grizzly bear recovery program. Monitoring indicated that the 300-pound female traveled between Yellowstone National Park and the Sawtelle Peak area of Idaho. She had given birth to two cubs in the spring of 2001, but lost one that summer.

Neither the sow nor her cub, agency personnel say, had been involved in any human encounter problems.

About the same time the bowhunter found the female and her cub near the Wyoming and Montana state lines, an Idaho wildlife biologist found the carcass of a male grizzly bear near the Washington-Idaho border in northwestern Bonner County of Idaho.

The four year-old male, also collared, was in the Selkirk Mountains, which straddle the state line.

The male grizzly had been trapped and collared in May 2001 as part of the Selkirk grizzly bear recovery effort.

State and federal officials say the male was shot in Idaho, about seven miles west of Priest Lake between Oct. 1 and Oct. 4. The biologist found the carcass on Lamb Creek Road near the state line. He was in an airplane checking radio collar signals at the time, officers say.

There are about 40 bears in the Selkirk Grizzly Bear Recovery Zone, says Anne Badgely, Pacific Region director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The carcasses have been sent to the Fish and Wildlife Service's National Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Ore., for examination.

The grizzly bear is listed as an officially "threatened" species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Grizzlies are also protected under state laws in Idaho and Washington.

Killing a threatened or endangered species is a crime punishable by up to one year in prison or a fine of as much as $100,000, according to FWS Special Agent Scott Bragonier.

A reward of up to $4000 is being offered by the Defenders of Wildlife and the Idaho Citizens Against Poaching for information that leads to an arrest in the shooting of the bears.