Deadly grizzly encounters are extremely rare in Panhandle

COEUR d'ALENE - The Cabinet-Yaak grizzly bear recovery zone is in northwest Montana and northeast Idaho, and includes 2,600 square miles.

It's one of a half-dozen grizzly bear recovery zones in the U.S., and estimates are there are 50 of the animals living within the zone.

The zone includes Lincoln County, in the northwest corner of Montana, where a hunter was mauled Friday morning by a grizzly. The animal was shot by another hunter after the attack.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials say the number of grizzly bears in the Cabinet-Yaak is declining.

"We believe there are at least 40-45 bears," said Wayne Kasworm, a bear biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Montana.

Wayne Wakkinen, a senior wildlife research biologist with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, said there hasn't been a deadly bear incident in the Panhandle for decades.

"I don't think there's been a fatal encounter in recent history," said Wakkinen.

Wakkinen said the most recent violent encounter occurred in the Selkirk Mountains in Canada about 40-50 years ago. A power line worker was attacked but survived the episode, he said.

Chip Corsi, director of Fish and Game's Panhandle region, also said he's not aware of any recent encounters that resulted in bloodshed.

"There may have been an incident or two where there was some close calls," said Corsi.

In 1975, grizzly bears were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

According to Fish and Wildlife, in the lower 48 states, the average weight of grizzly bears is generally 400 to 600 pounds for males and 250 to 350 pounds for females. Grizzly bears are long-lived mammals and generally live to be around 25 years old, the agency says.

On its website, Fish and Wildlife says that in the early 1800s, an estimated 50,000 grizzly bears roamed between the Pacific Ocean and the Great Plains.

The agency said that when pioneers moved in, bears were persecuted and their numbers and range declined. As European settlement expanded over the next hundred years, habitat for these large omnivores - along with their numbers - shrunk drastically.

Today, only a few corners of grizzly country remain in the western U.S., supporting about 1,200 to 1,400 wild grizzly bears.

Of 37 grizzly populations present in 1922, 31 were destroyed by 1975.