Montana grizzly ‘Maximus’ found shot dead

He was one of Montana's greatest grizzlies, a behemoth towering 7 1/2 feet and tipping the scales at more than 800 pounds, "a big, beautiful, wild bear," said Mike Madel, who recently found the mighty "Maximus" shot dead near Dupuyer. Madel is a grizzly bear specialist with the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and he wants to know why this bear was killed. "He wasn't a problem bear in any way," Madel said. "He kept to himself, stayed out of trouble. It seems someone just indiscriminately shot him." Such killings are rare, Madel said, adding that "we almost never see this kind of thing here." The occasional bear is killed in self-defense, he said, or by a hunter who mistakes a grizzer for a black bear. But Maximus steered clear of people, and it's not even bear season...Missoulian