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A female grizzly eyes her new habitat in the Cabinet Mountains of western Montana as she leaves a culvert trap on Oct. 2, 2005. The bear, trapped in the North Fork of the Flathead River drainage, Sept. 30, 2005, was transplanted to the Cabinet-Yaak ecosystem in order to help boost the struggling grizzly bear population. Montana wildlife officials on Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021, advanced plans that could allow grizzly bear hunting in areas around Glacier and Yellowstone national parks, if states in the U.S. northern Rockies succeed in their attempts to lift federal protections for the animals. (Kar…
A grizzly that traveled nearly 3,000 miles for food and shelter twice came close to Coeur dAlene.
Outdoor Life recently published an article about Ethyl, a grizzly that covered 2,800 miles through Montana, Idaho, and Canada.
While such behavior is unusual, it’s not unheard of, wrote Jeremy Gaffield, senior conservation officer, Grizzly Bear Enforcement and Education, Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
“The majority of grizzly bears in North Idaho are located in Game Management Unit (GMU) 1, which is north of Sandpoint in the Cabinet and Selkirk Mountains,” he wrote. "However, grizzly bears may visit GMU 2, 3, 4, 4a, 5, 6, 7, and 9.”
Gaffield wrote that grizzlies roam closer to cities like Coeur d’Alene than people might realize.
A few years ago, a young male grizzly bear was routinely raiding chicken coops in the Athol-Garwood area, which prompted Fish and Game staff to trap and relocate the bear to Unit 1 in order to avoid additional human-bear conflicts, Gaffield wrote.
Ethyl's story was much the same.
In 2010, Ethyl was caught raiding an apple orchard near a Montana town close to Lake Blaine and relocated. “Two years later, she returned with a cub, and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks specialists tranquilized her,” the article read. “Ethyl’s vital statistics were taken and she was fitted with a satellite-linked radio collar. Montana FWP officials then relocated her farther than in 2010, to the Puzzle Creek drainage near the Continental Divide south of Marias Pass.”
She didn't stay there.
Here’s a look at her travels, according the article by Alan Clemons.
“She visited the Bob Marshall Wilderness, the Front Range of the Rockies, down to the northern reaches of the Bitterroot Mountains, over interstates and freeways, and near cities until she reached eastern Coeur d’Alene in Idaho. Ethyl hibernated in the Idaho panhandle for the 2012-13 winter, and in March 2013 began heading east again along I-90 and then north. She skirted Missoula and reached the Bitterroot Mountain foothills near Florence, then back to Coeur d’Alene, and on to Missoula where she stayed through autumn. The vast Bob Marshall Wilderness was calling, though, and Ethyl went there and kept going, all the way to Glacier Park, and then west toward Eureka.”
Ethyl disappeared from biologists when she lost her collar in October 2014, the article said.
“The one thing we can say is this was not representative of normal bear movement, and certainly not female grizzly bear movement,” said Chris Servheen, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grizzly bear recovery coordinator, in 2014. “She had some really bizarre travels.”
The grizzly bear in Idaho and the lower 48 is still listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. It is illegal to harm, harass, or kill grizzly bears except in self-defense or in the defense of others.
Gaffield wrote grizzly bears are good travelers and may move between 20-40 miles a day. Their recovery zones in North Idaho are the Cabinet-Yaa,k about 2,625 square miles, and the Selkirk, about 201 square miles which include lands in Idaho, Montana, Washington and Canada.
The Idaho Panhandle Cabinet-Yaak RZ has about 60 grizzly bears and the Selkirk RZ has about 45 grizzlies.
Gaffield said Fish and Game does get occasional reports of griz sightings. They can be reported to the Panhandle Regional Office at 208-769-1414.