TEN SLEEP, Wyo. — The Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) announced Monday that a subadult male grizzly bear had been euthanized in the basin of the Bighorn Mountains due to cattle depredation. It was the first time a grizzly had been seen in the Bighorns in decades, according to the agency.
According to WGFD’s announcement, “an injured cow with wounds consistent with grizzly bear depredation” was found on private land south of Ten Sleep, leading WGFD staff to verify tracks suggesting the bear had been near the ranch for the past week. The bear was euthanized after consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service “due to its involvement in depredation and its behavior frequenting the ranch.”
The agency noted that the location of the conflict was more than 80 miles east of the grizzly bear Demographic Monitoring Area, which WGFD considers “biologically and socially suitable” for the species.
“Grizzly bears have not been documented in this area south of the Bighorn Mountains since long before the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem population was listed under the Endangered Species Act in the 1970s,” WGFD’s announcement reads.
According to a report by the Jackson Hole News&Guide, grizzly presence in the Bighorns is even less recent, with data suggesting grizzlies haven’t been in the area for a century.
WGFD Director Brian Nesvik said that grizzly bears do not belong in the Bighorns.
“Wyoming’s grizzly bear population is managed and monitored where suitable habitat exists as designated by the USFWS and informed by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team,” Nesvik said in a statement. “The Bighorn Mountain Range is not suitable habitat and the department is not interested in allowing grizzly bears to occupy this area. Their expansion into unsuitable habitat leads to increased conflict potential between bears and humans, which impedes the success of grizzly bear conservation.”
