Spring hunters asked to be grizzly bear aware
With more grizzlies moving into areas outside the Cabinet-Yaak grizzly zone of northern Montana and Idaho, Fish and Game urges spring black bear hunters to be bear aware and to know the difference between grizzlies (pictured) and black bear.
AP file photo
Black bear hunters in North Idaho are once again reminded to be aware of grizzlies.
Although Idaho’s grizzly bear populations are usually relegated to the northern Panhandle and the Greater Yellowstone Area in eastern Idaho, at least two grizzly bears last year turned up in the 2,500-square-mile Clearwater Region.
“We want to make sure that hunters in north-central Idaho are extra-vigilant while afield, both while traveling to their hunting spots, and in identifying their targets,” said Jon Rachael, state wildlife manager for Fish and Game.
The department wants to make sure hunters can distinguish between grizzlies and black bear. Because they are federally protected, it is illegal to kill a grizzly bear except in self-defense.
The Idaho Fish and Game website includes an identification video and quiz. In some areas using bait to hunt black bear is prohibited because bait stations can attract grizzlies. Bait permits as well as black bear tags are required to hunt black bears over bait stations.
Last year, Idaho Fish and Game Commission asked to join a lawsuit that would defend its right to regulate hunting seasons without federal interference.
The suit was a result of actions by environmental groups who sought to end certain hunting activities — including bear baiting — on federal lands.
Idaho has long-standing, Fish and Game Commission-approved bait closures to protect grizzly bears in the Panhandle and the Greater Yellowstone area in Eastern Idaho, Fish and Game said.
In the last 20 years, the only grizzly bear killed on national forest lands at a black bear bait site in Idaho was in 2007 in the Kelly Creek in the Clearwater region. Since then at least two grizzlies were sighted in the Clearwater and sightings in the lower Panhandle region — outside the Cabinet-Yaak grizzly area that includes the northern Panhandle and Montana — have been more frequent.
A grizzly was captured two years ago near Silverwood and moved north after Chilco Road residents complained of the bear in their neighborhood, and at least one grizzly last year was known to inhabit the Coeur d’Alene River area near Teepee Creek.