Bird hunter kills sow grizzly

Duty, who interviewed the hunter, said it appears that the man and his dog were following a lane or game trail through the brush and came to a dead end in shrubs and berry bushes that were well over his head. He surprised a female grizzly who was bedded down for the day with three cubs. Duty said the hunter was probably 20 feet from the bear when he saw her. He said the hunter told him she was on her feet and took two big lunges toward him. He fired three times at her with a 20-gauge semi-automatic shotgun, Duty said. The third shot, including the wad, hit the bear in the forehead and brought her down, fatally wounded. Duty said the man rejoined his hunting party and then they walked about a mile back to their vehicle, drove to the landowner’s ranch house and called FWP and the Teton County Sheriff’s Office. Duty and Blauer responded together, and Duty conducted the investigation. Duty said on Tuesday that the case appears to be a self-defense shooting. He said he has conferred with a federal investigator since shooting a grizzly bear can be a violation of the federal Endangered Species Act. He said the investigation will be considered open until the results of a necropsy on the bear are done at the state lab in Bozeman. Unless new evidence comes to light, however, he said he considers it a case of justified shooting in defense of the life of the hunter...read more