Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks responded to a property last month to capture and kill 14 black bears following a report of alleged supplemental feeding, which is illegal under state law.
State wildlife staff went to a property in Bozeman, Montana, roughly 512 miles northwest of Denver on Sept. 24 and Sept. 25, finding bears that “were extremely food conditioned and habituated to human presence,” officials said in a release Tuesday.
Montana wildlife officials did not specify the ages and sexes of the bears, which were captured and killed with the exception of a 15th bear, a cub. The cub was taken to a rehabilitation facility run by the agency to prepare it for potential relocation to a zoo.
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Supplemental feeding is forbidden, state wildlife officials said, because bears that receive food from or get used to finding food in human-populated areas lose their urge and capability to forage naturally.
Furthermore, the new behavior cannot be corrected, heightening the risk to people from bears seeking out food.
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks spokesperson Morgan Jacobsen told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle that even after being moved, bears will travel long distances to find food at places where they previously fed, and that usually the agency has to euthanize eight to 10 “problem bears” in the Bozeman area each year.
Bozeman residents have reported heightened bear activity in recent weeks.
Mike Clark, former head of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition environmental group and a Bozeman resident, told Cowboy State Daily that “for 10 nights during the last month, I’ve had to clean up other people’s garbage that bears have dragged into my yard … I’ve got ignorant neighbors who, frankly, aren’t properly cleaning up their garbage. Once those bears start getting into garbage, they’re basically committing suicide.”
Another Bozeman resident, Chaz Arthur, told the Wyoming newspaper that “people who aren’t knowledgeable about wildlife and the ecosystem here, they do stupid things. And one stupid thing they do is feed bears.”
Montana wildlife officials did not say if anyone has been identified, charged or punished for the alleged violation of supplemental feeding laws.
“These bears were unafraid of humans and stopped relying on natural foods, which created a human safety risk. It’s very unfortunate they had to be euthanized. An investigation into why the bears were on this property is ongoing,” Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks game warden Capt. Josh Leonard told KBZK-TV.
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