Watch out for grizzlies during black bear season
Photo via BIOLOGY.COM As the Panhandle black bear season begins this month, Idaho Fish and Game reminds hunters to be aware of grizzlies and to know the difference between species. Grizzlies are federally protected.
A couple years ago, a female grizzly originally from the Flathead area of Montana denned on the Gold Divide summit between Montana and the St. Joe River.
More recently — early last month — a grizzly was reported near Enaville, and reports of grizzly bears near Pinehurst have been logged by Idaho Fish and Game.
Last year, a bear that raided chicken coops near Athol was captured and moved north nearer the Yaak country where it likely came from, and a grizzly was shot at a Cataldo elk farm a decade ago.
Grizzly bear harvest is illegal in Idaho. After grizzly bears were delisted in 2017, a federal judge ruled last year that it was too early to remove the bears’ protections under the Endangered Species Act.
The increase in numbers of ursus arctos horribilis in the lower Panhandle, outside the Selkirk and Cabinet Yaak recovery area prompted Fish and Game over the past several years to add a qualifier to its spring black bear hunting rules: Watch out for grizzlies.
The Panhandle’s spring black bear hunt begins April 15 in the Panhandle.
The addition to the rules was meant to make bear hunters — spring and fall — aware that other bears besides black bears roam the landscape.
“It’s unusual to run into a grizzly bear,” Kiira Siitari of Fish and Game said. “But hunters should know the difference.”
The outlook for spring black bear in the Panhandle is similar to last year, Siitari said. Annual black bear harvest is highest in Idaho’s units 1, 4 and 6, and most of the bears are killed in the spring.
Hunters who harvest a bear must present the skull and hide to Idaho Fish and Game, where a premolar tooth is removed to age the animal, and the hide is tagged with an official state export tag.
Closing dates for black bear seasons vary by unit. The season is open until June 15 in units 1, 2, 3 and 5. It runs until June 30 in units 4, 4A and 6, In units 7 and 9 the season ends July 31.
While bears are prized for their hides, which range from black to blond, the meat is also excellent for eating. Bears are omnivores, but most of their diet consists of plants.