Ronan griz captured

RONAN — Authorities finally apprehended the Ronan-area’s nuisance grizzly sow and cubs late last week, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Fish and Game bear biologist Stacy Courville said.

“We had snares and traps all over the place,” he said of the department’s nearly three-month effort to capture the elusive bear family.

Weighing in at about 300 pounds, the five-and-a-half-year-old sow was caring for her first litter of two cubs. She took the bear bait (deer road kill) sometime Thursday night or Friday morning, Courville said. The offspring were captured Friday night with live chicken bait traps set in the same vicinity as the mother. The group is currently in custody, awaiting transportation to the Louisville, Ky., Zoo.

“She’s a pretty mellow bear,” Courville said. “She was not malnourished, but probably nutritionally stressed trying to feed two young cubs.”

According to Courville, the bears had recently been eating both serviceberries and choke cherries.

“She’d been hitting the berries pretty hard,” he said. “She hadn’t hit anyone else’s [chicken coops] since the last time, about ten days ago.”

Now in captivity, the three grizzlies have been enjoying donated fruit from a local grocery store.

“They really like nectarines,” Courville said.

Due largely to the extended cool, wet spring weather, CSKT Natural Resources Department’s Information and Education specialist Germaine White said that because there has been so little natural food available for bears, many are nutritionally stressed and seeking human food instead.

“That’s a problem for bears,” she said. “It’s already August, and they’re struggling.”

The struggles mean more instances of bears seeking human attractants, like chickens and garbage, Courville said. At the end of July, Courville said the wildlife division had captured 28 nuisance black bears and to date, six grizzlies. White encourages residents to reduce attractants so our bruinly neighbors don’t end up in bear “jail.”

“It seems to be pretty bad,” Courville said. “We didn’t have this many problems last year.”