Three grizzlies radio collared

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologists recently wound up their grizzly bear work in the North Fork. Three bears were captured and fitted with radio transmitters as part of a monitoring effort in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem. FWP biologists will closely follow the bears' movements.

Biologist Rick Mace said the collars will help FWP monitor the survival and reproduction of grizzly bears in this important part of the NCDE. Based on analysis by Mace and his colleagues, to be published in an upcoming edition of "The Journal of Wildlife Management," the grizzly bear population in the NCDE is growing at 3 percent per year.

Monitoring-capture efforts will now move to other areas of the NCDE, which includes mountains in southern British Columbia, Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. The project is primarily funded by FWP and the Forest Service.

The study is now in its eighth year. Mace and his team of researchers maintain at least 25 radio collars across the ecosystem. The goal is to track reproductivity and mortality of female bears.

"We have a whole bunch of radios all over the ecosystem," he said. "Every year, collars fall off or they fail or bears die."

Record snowpack in the mountains has affected the monitoring efforts.

"You can't get into the high country, but we've been able to trap low in the Swan Valley and low in the North Fork."

The researchers are also looking for a male and female bear to transplant to the Cabinet Range, where the bear population is considered imperiled.

Glacier National Park is also participating in a long-term interagency program to monitor grizzly bear population trends in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem. Bait stations, automated cameras and traps will be used to capture and monitor grizzly bears within the park. Bait stations and trap sites will be marked with brightly colored warning and closure signs.

The program attempts to maintain a sample of up to 10 radio-marked female grizzly bears out of an estimated population of 300 grizzly bears living in the Park. Trapping efforts will continue at various locations throughout the Park in June through October. For more information, contact John Waller at 888-7829.