Another bear has a new relocated home outside the East Entrance.
This Tuesday, another grizzly – this time, a sub-adult male – was captured and relocated from private lands near the Buffalo Fork River drainage northeast of Jackson to the Five Mile Creek drainage, five miles from the East Entrance. This is the third grizzly relocation this summer, and the second one relocated to the Cody area in the past two weeks. On July 22nd, an adult male grizzly was relocated to the Mormon Creek Drainage – also 5 miles from the East Entrance – for livestock depredation outside Pinedale. This subadult grizzly was not after livestock, but had been caught breaking into and eating livestock feed. Such behavior could make it habituated, so the decision was made to move it toward Yellowstone.
The Five Mile Creek drainage was specifically chosen for its lack of human presence and ensuring the bear could be released behind a closed gate. The hope is it will not find nor seek out humans and their tasty feed in this area. Since neither of these bears were deemed a direct threat to people, they were relocated rather than destroyed. But even habituated behavior and livestock depredation can earn a grizzly the death sentence. It would be a lot easier if they understood that.
This continues bearably busy year in Northwest Wyoming. There have been two grizzly bear attacks, 1 grizzly bear incident in Yellowstone, and a few black bears outright destroyed by park rangers – one in Yellowstone and one in Grand Teton – when they showed habituated behavior and sought out human food, one going so far as to bite a woman on her head.
