A Montana bowhunter needed to be rescued from a tree by helicopter Saturday after a detailed encounter with a grizzly bear. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks explains in a press launch that the hunter was within the Gallatin Vary backcountry when he encountered the sow grizzly with two giant cubs at shut vary. The hunter climbed a close-by tree however the sow charged him anyway, in response to MFWP. The hunter shot the bear from the tree, and the injured sow remained close by whereas he waited within the tree and known as for assist.
MFWP officers had been notified of the incident and so they dispatched a helicopter to the situation that afternoon. State grizzly bear specialists and sport wardens discovered the hunter unhurt and nonetheless within the tree, and so they helped transport him to security. Officers additionally discovered and dispatched the injured sow close by, however they had been unable to search out any cubs or cub tracks within the space.
The hunter known as 911 to report his location round 2 p.m., in response to the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Workplace, which acquired the preliminary name. The GCSO gave its personal abstract of occasions in an Oct. 7 Fb publish, noting that “the hunter defended themself by taking pictures the bear with a pistol earlier than climbing the tree.”
That is barely totally different from MFWP’s model, by which the hunter climbed the tree earlier than he shot the bear. Montana officers couldn’t be reached for remark Wednesday to offer readability on the sequence of occasions.
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It’s unlikely the company would offer extra particulars concerning the encounter anyway, for the reason that incident being investigated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That is commonplace process with incidents involving people and grizzly bears, as Montana grizzlies are nonetheless federally protected below the Endangered Species Act.
The USFWS has been pretty busy with these investigations to this point this yr. An identical incident passed off in Idaho earlier this searching season, when two bowhunters shot and killed an attacking boar grizzly close to Henrys Lake west of Yellowstone Nationwide Park. Saturday’s encounter within the Gallatin Vary marks the third time (and the second this elk season) that hunters have shot and killed grizzly bears in Montana in 2024.
On Sept. 9, two bowhunters shot and killed a charging grizzly sow with cubs close to West Yellowstone, Montana, in response to MFWP. (The hunters additionally shot and injured one of many cubs but it surely was by no means discovered.) And again in April, a shed hunter who was charged by a grizzly close to Wolf Creek shot and killed the bear along with his handgun. Each hunters claimed self-defense, though it’s unclear if the USFWS has accomplished these investigations.
This yr’s variety of lethal encounters between outdoorsmen and grizzlies within the northern Rockies aligns intently with 2023. There have been not less than seven recorded incidents in Montana and Idaho that yr involving hunters and anglers who killed grizzly bears in self-defense. And if you happen to embody the Idaho home-owner who shot a charging grizzly in his driveway this summer season, the 2024 tally is at the moment 5 useless grizzlies. It should nonetheless be a number of weeks or months till grizzlies within the area start to hibernate.
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These encounters come as some Western big-game hunters level to an increase in human-grizzly conflicts, and as lawmakers in Idaho and Montana proceed their requires grizzlies to be delisted so the bears might be managed by the states.
“Bizarre. 12 months after yr, [grizzlies] are killed by hunters and there’s nonetheless [grizzlies],” one social media consumer wrote in response to MFWP’s Fb publish concerning the bowhunter who was treed by a bear over the weekend. “It’s as if they will maintain their inhabitants.”