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Great Grizzly Search
Survey hopes to determine if bears are moving into Selway-Bitterroot

BY CANDACE BURNS

Think you've seen a grizzly in your favorite neck of the woods?

Eight conservation and scientific groups want to hear about it.

The groups, which favor grizzly restoration through natural migration rather than reintroduction in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, have begun the Great Grizzly Search. They hope to prove that grizzlies are finding their own way into the Selway-Bitterroot ecosystem.

"We're keeping an open mind but we're not ready to rush into helicoptering bears into the wilderness," said Mike Bader. Bader is executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, one of the groups behind the Great Grizzly Search.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to reintroduce grizzlies to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. Reintroduced grizzlies would be considered an experimental population managed under relaxed rules that allow control actions that include shooting problem bears.

However, grizzlies that recover on their own would be fully protected by the Endangered Species Act.

Bader believes there may be more grizzlies slipping through western Montana and Idaho's woods than anyone knows.

"We're finding there are more reports than anyone knew about or was saying," said Bader.

Since announcing the Great Grizzly Search earlier this month, Bader said he has gotten several reports of sightings, some of which were reported years ago to federal and state agencies. Bader and others will check agency records to corroborate those sightings.

Anecdotal and circumstantial evidence over the past 20 years suggests there could be at least a few grizzlies in the ecosystem, especially in northern Idaho where grizzly habitat is good, Bader said. There have been several reported sightings in the Clearwater, Lolo and Kelly Creek areas near Missoula, he said.

To encourage more reports from hunters, outfitters and others who use the backcountry, the Great Grizzly Search is supplying them with pocket-sized observation cards that include photos and descriptions of both black and grizzly bears, as well as a ruler for measuring tracks.

"The federal government in this case are pretty much the doubting Thomases," said Bader. "People think they are seeing grizzlies, they report them, then the agencies kind of ridicule them, and that offends people."

According to Idaho Fish and Game Wildlife Biologist Mike Scott in Salmon, telling a grizzly from a black bear can sometimes be difficult, even for those who know the differences. For example, grizzlies have shoulder humps but so do some black bears. Grizzlies range from 300 to 500 pounds, he said, but a black bear also can weigh up to 500 pounds. Like black bears, grizzlies can be black or blond.

Aside from a close-range photo, your best bet for identification may be a hair with the follicle attached for DNA analysis. Look for hair on signposts, at trail junctions, on the edges of clearings and on the ends of broken sticks on logs.

Detailed information of the location and time of sighting, combined with information about the duration of the sighting and the experience of the onservers will help, said Bader. Photographs of the animal or its tracks also help, as will print measurements or castings and scat samples. If a grizzly is occupying a particular area, sightings will add up, he said. Eventually, said Bader, the Great Grizzly Search will be able to send people who can help collect information from observation areas.

Besides helping Bader and others piece together evidence of a grizzly population, the Great Grizzly Search may let others know where the bears are.

"Regardless of whether or not people want grizzlies, everyone wants to know if there are grizzlies there before they go into the woods," said Bader.

To report a sighting write to:

Great Grizzly Search
P.O. Box 8983
Missoula, MT 59807

Call or e-mail Alliance for the Wild Rockies at (406) 721-5420

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