Residents in a small Montana town were saddened angered when they learned a headless grizzly carcass left in the Yellowstone River was a troublesome but popular bear well known to townspeople.
The 15-year-old male was Grizzly 769, a bear dubbed the Blacktail Lakes Bear, wildlife photographer and Gardiner resident Deby Dixon told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday.
Dixon had followed and photographed Grizzly 769 since she moved to Gardiner 12 years ago.
People Upset About Carcass In River
Montana, Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) wardens shot and killed the bear last week after repeated break-ins in and around Gardiner, a town located at the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park.
FWP officers said the bear was killed after they tracked it from another house it had raided to the Yellowstone River, where they shot it.
The bear’s carcass was left in the river after FWP wardens cut off and confiscated its head and also its paws.
The agency said it took the grisly step to make sure that those bear parts wouldn’t end up on the black market, where grizzly skulls and claws are a popular item.
“I’m seeing a lot of comments online about it, people are pretty angry,” Dixon said. “I’ve been hearing about it here and there. People who are floating the river are upset about it, because they float right past the carcass,” she said.
The carcass was left in the river because it ended up in a spot where it couldn’t be safely recovered, FWP spokesman Morgan Jacobson told Cowboy State Daily.
Grizzly Had Been Causing Trouble
FWP had been pursuing the bear for weeks, but had trouble finding it, because it was moving mostly at night, Jacobson said.
Wardens responded to a report early Thursday of the grizzly breaking into a house in Maiden Basin.
By the time they got there, the bear was in the river, Jacobson said. Wardens decided to shoot it there because that was the safest option.
Carcass Drifted Downstream
After the grizzly was shot and killed its carcass started drifting downriver and wardens lost track of it
“It was underwater at some points,” Jacobson said.
The dead bear, which weighed at least 500 pounds, ended up in a spot where safe recovery of the entire carcass wasn’t feasible, mostly because they riverbanks are so steep there, he said.
So they removed the head and paws on site. The animal parts had to be taken in compliance with federal law, he said.
Grizzlies in the Lower 48 are still listed as an endangered species and under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“The head and paws were taking in compliance with Fish and Wildlife Service regulations, because it is illegal to traffic any grizzly bear parts in the Lower 48,” Jacobson said.
Grizzly skulls and claws can be hot commodities in the illegal wildlife trade, he said.
There was previous case years ago in roughly the same area, “where we had to euthanize a grizzly, and somebody got to the carcass before we could and took the head and paws, and we didn’t want that to happen again,” Jacobson said.
In the latest case, FWP left the carcass in an area that was unfortunately clearly visible to people floating on the river. It could even be seen from the adjacent highway, according to complaints FWP has been fielding about it, Jacobson said.
The carcass will remain in the river and be left to nature, he said.
“I drove by and say a couple of bald eagles perched on the carcass,” he said. “Nothing goes to waste in nature.”
A Popular Bear
Grizzly 769 was popular because he frequented places in and near Yellowstone where he could be watched from safe distances, Dixon said.
He was named the Blacktail Lakes bear because he liked to feed on carcasses of bison that had drown in Blacktail Lakes, in northern Yellowstone, she said.
“This bear brought a lot of people to Yellowstone. He was there during Covid in 2020, so a lot of people got away from the cities to come see him,” Dixon said.
Trouble In Town
But a couple of years ago, Grizzly 769 started coming into Gardiner, tempted by garbage and other goodies that had irresponsibly been left where the bear could easily get to them, Dixon said.
He came near her house more than once, but never tried to break in or tear up her property.
“I’m around bears a lot in the park, where I feel comfortable around bears. But it’s pretty unnerving to have one walking right by your house in town,” she said.
“I felt uneasy about it. I thought it was just a matter of time before somebody ran into him in the wrong place at the wrong time and got hurt,” Dixon added.
When Grizzly 769 wasn’t spotted in his usual haunts this spring, rumors started flying that he’d died, Dixon said.
“The rumor was he got into some rat poison that killed him, so a lot of people thought he was already dead,” she said.
But it was confirmed late Tuesday that Grizzy 769 hadn’t died from poison but was instead a bear that FWP had shot, Dixon said.
“We’ve had to morn his death twice,” she said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
