Griz adult seen by Shelby is first to wander so far east of the Front

An adult female grizzly bear has shown up on a remote stretch of the Marias River southwest of Shelby with two cubs in tow, the first time that bear managers have documented an adult female so far east of the Rocky Mountain Front. "It's the first radio-collared bear I've had gone that far east that I know of," said Dan Carney, a wildlife biologist with the Blackfeet Tribe. Mike Madel, a bear management specialist with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, said the female's excursion onto the plains might be an indication the eastward expansion of home ranges of northcentral Montana's robust grizzly population is occurring more quickly than bear managers thought it would. "The fact we have an adult female, who's also of reproductive age, is pretty significant," Madel said...more