As with many places across the West, the Wind River Canyon has become a hotbed of black bear activity, as dry conditions drive animals to water and greenery at lower elevations.
A young female black bear was struck and killed Sunday on Wyoming Highway 789/U.S. Highway 20, which passes through the canyon between Shoshoni and Thermopolis.
Canyon residents told Cowboy State Daily that they are saddened by the bear’s death, and they also hope that at least two other bears thought to be hanging out there don’t get hit as well.
“It made me sad. Every roadkill makes me sad,” said Boysen Marina co-owner Georgia Epperson.
“We get roadkill in the canyon all the time,” resident Liz Lightner said. “We also just had a great horned owl get hit.”
Hoping It’s Not The Same Bear
Canyon resident Mark Potter captured video of a young black bear in his yard over the summer.
Other than driving his dog crazy, the bear didn’t cause any trouble.
He said he saw the carcass of the bear that had been hit and killed, between mile markers 118 and 119, while he was driving to a Sunday prayer breakfast.
He hates to think it was the same bear that was in his yard. And there’s reason to think it wasn’t.
The bear in his yard seemed to have darker fur and also appeared to be lengthier in the body than the one killed.
“You never want to see a bear get hit and killed,” Potter said.
“A lot of racoons and turkeys hit the dust” along the highway, he added.
Potter said bears seem unusually active in the canyon this year. He doesn’t recall seeing any last year.
“I imagine that there’s just not a lot of natural food for them,” he said.
Hit During The Night
Epperson said the bear carcass wasn’t there late Saturday. She spotted it early Sunday.
That means the animal was probably stuck and killed sometime overnight, she said.
The bear, which appeared to be a yearling, suffered massive injuries, Epperson said.
One of its legs “had about a third broken off, very jaggedly,” she said.
And the carcass also had massive bruising on one of its flanks, indicating it probably was struck broadside, she said.
It’s terrible to think the young bear died just trying to do what it needed to get through the drought, Epperson said.
“I think she was either going to or coming back from getting a drink in the river,” she said.
This young Black female was struck by a vehicle and killed on Wyoming Highway 789/U.S. Highway 20 in the Wind River Canyon. (Georgia Epperson) 
This young Black female was struck by a vehicle and killed on Wyoming Highway 789/U.S. Highway 20 in the Wind River Canyon. (Georgia Epperson)
‘I Slept With Bear Spray’
Lightner said she had a bear show up at her place at about 2:30 a.m. Aug. 17.
She’s confident that’s not the bear that got hit because it was "huge"; likely a mature male.
At one point the bear clambered into the back of a pickup, disturbing some guests who were sleeping in a camper.
“They heard a commotion, opened the door on the camper, saw the bear and slammed the door shut,” she said.
The bear also came up onto her back porch and stared at her through a sliding glass door before eventually wandering off.
The experience was unnerving, Lightner said.
“I slept with bear spray,” she said.
She’d been using rodent repellent spray around her house, which contains cinnamon oil, garlic and peppermint oil.
Then she found out those scents, while they might send rodents running, are attractive to bears.
“So, I’ve been telling everybody in the canyon to stop using that rodent repellent spray,” she said.
Fence-Crasher
Allen Darlington has a home-based fish taxidermy business in the canyon. He also has apricot trees on his property.
Despite having all those potential bear attractants around, he said he hasn’t had any trouble this year.
His residence is near a naturally shallow spot in the river, where bears like to wade across, and then cross the highway and stroll up his driveway before moving into the hills beyond.
While things have been quiet for him this summer, he recalled a harrowing incident from about nine years ago.
A large black bear, having just crossed the river and highway, was headed up his driveway when a neighbour's cocker spaniel charged it.
Despite its size advantage, the bear was terrified by the dog, ran, and fell full tilt down the narrow strip between two houses on Darlington’s property.
At the time, he was in his yard, with his attention focused on two puppies he was feeding.
“Suddenly I heard this ungodly crash and screech of wire. I looked to my left, and there was this huge black bear,” he said.
After plowing into Darlington’s fence, “he sat down just like a dog,” he said.
"He had propped his left paw out. And he was leaning to the left, with his head tilted way to the left,” Darlington said.
The bear had stunned himself, slamming headlong into his fence. Darlington later measured the distance between where he’d been standing and where the bear was sitting.
“He was exactly nine feet from me,” he said.
In the moment, Darlington was terrified. But after the bear regained its senses, “he shook himself off and ran away,” he said.
That bear lingered around the area for the rest of the summer and didn’t cause any more trouble, he added.
Bear Activity Galore
Bears aren’t the only wildlife drawn to the water and greenery in the canyon.
Lightner said she’s seen plentiful raptors, bighorn sheep, a mink and elk.
Darlington said over the years he’s seen just about every species of Wyoming wildlife.
“Except grizzlies. I’d love to see a grizzly. From across the canyon, not running into my fence,” he said, wryly.
There’s been unusually high black bear activity across Wyoming and neighboring states.
Colorado wildlife officials have killed nearly 300 black bears because of human-bear conflicts.
And Casper residents Page and Keith Mamot found a black bear in the kitchen of their second home in Driggs, Idaho. That bear was shot by sheriff’s deputies.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
