JACKSON, Wyo. — Yesterday, the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed the euthanization of Grizzly 1057, one of the four famous cubs recently weaned by Grizzly 399.
The sub-adult bear was removed following 13 documented conflicts since May 2022. The bear had spent an extended period of time in and out of residential areas in Sublette County, becoming increasingly bold in the past few weeks, explained Public Information Specialist for Wyoming Game and Fish Department Mark Gocke.
“It makes news when a bear is put down and that’s all people hear, there’s more to the story and so much work we do to prevent that,” Gocke said.
In early June, WyoFile reported two of the cubs had been spotted in the Green River Valley in Sublette County, poking around in residential areas. Game and Fish spent time in those areas, knocking on doors and making sure residents were securing bear attractants and in some cases, helping remove trash or attractants.
But in the past few weeks, the bear grew increasingly bold. “The more food it gets the more bold it gets,” Gocke said. “When you start seeing it in places like up on front porches, things like that tell us this bear has received a lot of food rewards and had become human food contidioned.”
Gocke explained that while 13 conflicts were documented, there are always conflicts that go unreported. “That’s a minimum, we can assume more,” Gocke said.
“Putting down a bear or any animal is not a decision we take lightly and it is always going to be the last resort for us.”
Gocke said one resident fired a warning shot, in an attempt to scare the bear off but 1057 appeared unaffected by it. Another resident reportedly accidentally hit the bear in the rump when they opened their front door.
“It was clearly a human safety issue,” Gocke said.
For 1057, relocation was also not an option.
Gocke said, “In this case for us, if we know that a bear has gotten that food conditioned and that bold, we know that if we relocate it to the forest there’s a pretty slim chance it will live out its life and stay there. We relocate a lot of bears, but if we know there’s a good chance that bear is not going to stay wild and end up in a campground, that’s irresponsible as an agency.”
Gocke explained that capturing a bear isn’t necessarliy easy either, the bears, especially 1057 become trap smart if they’ve been captured previously. It can be assumed that 1057 was one of the two bears captured and collared last summer by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, because it was assigned a number.
“As much as we would like to relocate an animal, we also have to use our years of experience and expertise and do the right thing,” Gocke said.
While this bear was found to be habituated to humans, just because a bear visits a developed area, doesn’t mean it needs to be removed.
“It happens a lot around here, bears are always going to be moving through developed areas from time to time, generally they are not a problem and keep moving, as long as they don’t get food rewards,” Gocke said.
