By accounts from across the West, this year has been bonkers for bears, and it isn’t over yet.
Black bears are shuffling off to their hibernation dens, but grizzlies are still highly active, observers told Cowboy State Daily.
Elk hunter Owen Miller saw a hungry black bear show up right outside of his camper near the Snowy Range in late September. It was just one incident in an off-the-charts year for bear activity, he said.
At one point, he thought he’d scared the bear off, only to have it come back and flip his generator, cutting his power.
“So, I went out there (to fix the generator) and I was like, ‘you little sh*t,’” Miller said.
But the bear wasn’t little.
“It was probably a 200-pound, or better, bear” and appeared to be about 4 years old, he said.
Meanwhile, Bryan Peterson, the director of Bear Smart Durango, told Cowboy State Daily that he was finally relaxing after bear activity there started to wane in early October.
"The bears were heading off to hibernate, at about the normal time," he said.
Driven to lower altitudes by lack of natural food sources, black bears were hanging out and dumpster-diving all over town this summer and fall. And humans being careless with garbage wasn’t helping the situation.
“It was unprecedented. Last year wasn’t great either; 2017 was about the worst year we’ve had so far. I think 2026 might rival that. It could be the worst year on record,” Peterson said.
'Hi, Buddy!'
Miller, an accomplished bear hunter, lives in northeast Wyoming but loves going to the Snowy Range to hunt.
He wanted to hunt bears this fall. But there was so much bear activity in his hunt area the kill quota was filled before he ever got a chance.
Instead, he set up camp not far from the base of the mountains, from which he and his nephew could hunt elk.
He was aware that a black bear had been raiding camps in the area but didn’t think much of it.
“I was out on the plains. There were two other camps between me and the mountains, so I figured he’d go to those,” Miller said.
But sure enough, the bear showed up at Miller’s camp.
He caught a video of him opening his camper door to find the bear standing just a few feet away, looking almost embarrassed about being caught.
“Hi, buddy! What are you doing, huh?” Miller says to the bear, which stands for a moment longer, then turns and runs.
Miller said it went about 20 yards, “then sat down on a log and watched me.”
After the bear flipped his generator, he moved it underneath his camper. But the bear returned and flipped a freezer he had set up for elk meat.
Luckily, all the freezer had in it at the time was “an old jar of mayonnaise", Miller said.
‘Bears Are Eating, Eating, Eating’
Wildlife photographer Marcela Herdova has been watching bears in Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks for years and said this was a banner year for grizzly sightings.
“With the black bears, my personal experience is that I’ve seen fewer of them this year, said Herdova, who runs Ruby Hour Photo Art.
She said she thinks the black bears might have been less visible because “their food sources have changed” due to dry, hot conditions this year.
The grizzlies were are still highly active in the parks, Herdova said, pleasing tourists.
Grizzly 610 was one of the famous Teton bears that stayed highly visible all summer and fall, she said.
Grizzly 610 started with two cubs this spring but lost one, Herdova said.
Biologists say that the mortality rate for grizzly cubs of the year is about 50%.
“With Grizzly 610, so many people got a show. It was crazy,” Herdova said.
In Yellowstone, grizzlies have been seen feasting on elk carcasses near roadways, and wolves have shown up, too, Herdova said.
It might still be a while before the park grizzlies head to their winter dens, and they’re taking full advantage of any food they can find.
“All these bears are just eating, eating, eating,” she said.
Canadian bear safety expert Kim Titchener said one of her country’s most popular grizzlies, The Boss, is still active, as usual.
The Boss is a 700-pound behemoth that rules Banff National Park in Alberta.
“The boss, he tends to stay out into December,” Titchener said.
Prowling for Carcasses
Outside the parks in northwest Wyoming, retired federal ecologist Chuck Neal of Cody said he’s still seeing plenty of grizzlies on his regular hikes.
“Black bears tend to den a little earlier. I haven’t seen any black bears for probably two or three weeks,” he said.
Female grizzlies with cubs of the year have also gone to their dens, he noted.
But lone females, those with older cubs, and mature males are still out and about, Neal said.
The females and older cubs are busy digging up roots. The big males are focused on big-game carcasses, he said.
“The big males are still prowling, looking for those last carcasses of the year,” Neal said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
