On Saturday, October 5, an archery elk hunter shot a grizzly bear in self defense in the Gallatin National Forest, east of Big Sky, Montana. According to Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (FWP), the sow grizzly forced the hunter up a tree and continued to charge before he shot and mortally wounded the animal.
The man was hunting elk in a backcountry area near a series of alpine lakes. He told officials he was about a mile from the nearest trail when he encountered the adult sow and her two cubs at close range.
"The hunter climbed a tree to avoid the bear, but the bear charged at the hunter," reads an FWP press release issued yesterday afternoon. "The hunter shot and injured the bear from the tree. The hunter stayed in the tree while the injured bear remained nearby."
The hunter managed to call 911 from the tree, and a team of grizzly bear specialists and game wardens responded via helicopter. "The wardens were able to locate the sow, and it was very apparent that she was mortally injured," FWP spokesman Morgan Jacobson tells Field & Stream.
Jacobson says the tree that the hunter climbed was a white bark pine, a species that grows above tree-line throughout the Rocky Mountain West. "It wasn't an especially tall tree," he says. "The bear could have climbed the tree as well."
After the wardens euthanized the sow, they searched the area for signs of her cubs. "[The hunter] said that the cubs appeared be large—about 75 percent of the sow's size," Jacobson says. "Our team flew over the area several times, and searched from the ground, but did not locate the cubs."
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According to Jacobson, the helicopter crew gave the uninjured hunter a ride out of the area. The incident is being investigated by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. It marks the fourth time this season that an archery elk hunter in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem has had to shoot a charging grizzly bear in self defense.
