Trapped Grizzly is Grouchy

Occurred on September 21, 2016 / Whitefish Mountains, Montana, USA

Info from Licensor: "An award-winning outdoor writer and photographer, I captured this video while on assignment for Sierra Magazine documenting the expansion of Montana grizzlies into lands they hadn’t inhabited in a century. This is the release of a 22-year-old male grizzly bear in Montana’s northern Whitefish Range. He’d been getting into chicken coops that were not secured with electric fencing, a must in grizzly country.

Bear biologists set out a culvert trap for him, kept him overnight, drugged and assessed him with measurements, blood tests, etc. A grizzly had recently killed a local man who was mountain biking near the border of Glacier National Park and they suspected this might be the bear. This bear had been captured before and as a result, had a rice-sized microchip implanted under its skin. They read the chip and were able to look at records to compare the bear’s DNA to the DNA of the killer bear. In the end, it was not the same bear. Consequently, he was released the next day in a more remote area with fewer troublesome temptations.

I expected him to bolt into the creek and set my camera up accordingly. But he had his own idea which involved a bit of revenge on the damn humans with the audacity to trap him. He’s damn eager to get out and explodes from the trap as soon as the door is high enough. Then he almost takes my camera with him. Amazingly, the camera still works, though it’s now scored with grizzly teeth marks.

For more information and background, see my corresponding article in Sierra Magazine: https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2017-1-january-february/feature/grizzly-bears-are-making-comeback-and-making-their-human"