Grizzly bear spotted in Montana further east than had been seen in a century

By Medicine Hat News on April 18, 2024.

@MedicineHatNews

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks are advising residents south of Havre that a grizzly bear had been spotted in a heavily wooded south of the town earlier this month.

The Billings Gazette quotes officials who send out notices to residents near the Bear Paw Mountains, about 30 kilometres south of Havre, which is about 200 km southeast of Medicine Hat.

The area is an 80 km range extending from the Rocky Boy Indian Reserve and the Missouri River.

Officials told the Gazette that game cameras recorded a grizzly last fall in the area, but that was the first confirmed sighting of the species that far east in state in more than a century.

A private citizen video recorded a bear moving in the high elevations of Bears Paw Mountains in early April, after media reports of unconfirmed sightings over the last several years.

According to Montana FWP the grizzly population in the state is about 2,000 individuals with most inhabiting a range between Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks on the slopes of the Rocky Mountains.

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