Grizzly wake

Attracted by the foul-smelling carcass of the calf he’d killed the day before, the grizzly bear climbed into the green metal box to resume feeding. As he grabbed the carcass with one huge front paw, the metal door of the cage slammed shut behind him. Trapped, the bear sprawled atop the carcass to wait out the night, knowing the human would arrive at first light. This bear had been trapped before.

Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WG&F) bear specialist Zach Turnbull arrived on the scene at Wagon Creek at dawn, finding the bear in the trap that he’d prepared the day before. Turnbull hooked the wheeled trap onto the hitch of his state-issued four-wheel drive pickup truck, and began his trip over rough roads in the Union Pass area of the Bridger-Teton National Forest. He would take the bear to the agency’s cabin where it could be processed and its future determined through consultation with others involved in managing this species listed as threatened pursuant to the federal Endangered Species Act.

But as Turnbull started down a gentle slope of the road, he touched his boot to the brakes, only to have the foot pedal fall to the floorboard with little resistance. Realizing the truck had lost its brakes, Turnbull managed to get the vehicle stopped and crawled underneath with tools to try to resolve the problem. Any direction of travel from here would involve mountain roads, curves, and switchbacks.

I had turned off the highway and onto the unpaved road just as the sun was starting to rise. I’d decided to take the road less traveled – rather than drive through summer tourist traffic from Dubois to my home in Sublette County, I would take the Union Pass Road over the mountains, planning a leisurely and scenic start to my day.

About half-way over Union Pass, I came around a corner of the tree-lined roadway to see a green WG&F truck stopped ahead, with a pair of dirty cowboy boots sticking out from behind the rear tire, and an aerosol can of bear pepper spray on the ground close by. I pulled up slowly to the truck, sticking my head out the window to announce “Good Morning” to the wearer of the boots. Turnbull’s face appeared from behind the tire to greet me with a grin, and at this point, I glanced back at the trap attached to the truck to see it contained a grizzly bear that was intently observing us. Turnbull explained that he was trying to fix his brakes, so I pulled my car out of the roadway and stood nearby as Turnbull worked, talking and keeping him company while keeping my eye on the caged bear. The last few days on the mountain had been rough ones for Turnbull, and this wasn’t a stellar start for the new day.

I’d heard reports from local cattlemen that the grizzly bears were really harassing the cattle this year, and with confirmed depredations scattered across this largest of the National Forest system’s grazing allotments, efforts to trap and control problem grizzlies were keeping everyone busy. The trapped bear was the sixth Upper Green grizzly bear Turnbull had handled in about the last month. Four others had been relocated out of the area in hopes they wouldn’t prey on livestock again.

The bear stayed back in the shadows of his cage, a low growl rumbling from his chest when Turnbull or I moved around or approached too closely. At one point Turnbull walked near the back of the trap and the bear lunged at him, hitting the door to the trap and rocking the entire contraption. I caught my breath in alarm, and I was stunned when Zach showed no visible response. When I mentioned it, Turnbull said this bear was showing fairly docile behavior considering its circumstances.

After about 20 minutes, we were joined by another bear handler – another Zach – this one Zach Gregory, a seasonal employee working in the large carnivore program with Turnbull. A temporary fix was made to the brakes, and the trap was transferred over to Gregory’s truck and the men were ready to roll. I followed along as they transported the trapped bear to the Fish Creek Guard Station and began their work.

While Turnbull provided a distraction for the bear at the front of the trap, Gregory used a poke-stick to give the bruin a shot of tranquilizer in its meaty rear end. Within minutes, the bear began licking its lips and drooping, as the effects of the 1,500 mg Telazol injection spread through its body. The bear soon slumped over the calf carcass in slumber.

Opening the trap door, the men made sure the bear was soundly sleeping before climbing in, straddling the bear to read the eartag that had been placed in its right ear some years before: 1161. Turnbull climbed out of the trap to look the number up in a well-used notebook that contains all the tag numbers, tattoo marks, and other identifying information about every known grizzly bear in the entire Yellowstone ecosystem. This was bear number 304, an old bear.

First captured in 1998 as a three-year old, Bear 304 had been trapped and handled by wildlife officials on numerous occasions in his life, and had sported three different radio collars throughout his 17-years roaming the ecosystem, but was not collared any longer. His rap sheet also noted that the bear had been captured and relocated in 2006 after preying on cattle. Ah, so this was not a first offense.

After calling in the bear’s information to his agency managers, Turnbull climbed back into the trap to have a closer look at the bruin. The men had started to pull the bear out of the trap, but soon realized that his estimated 350-pound weight might mean that the men would be unable to lift him back into the trap if needed, so they would just have to do their work from inside the trap, straddling the latent beast.

The adult male grizzly was battle-scarred, with an open bloody gash on the right side of his head, just above the eye.

“He took a whipping,” Turnbull muttered, as his fingers probed the swollen mass near the eye, suggesting the bear may have a broken facial orb from a recent fight with another bear.

A look inside Bear 304’s mouth revealed stained and worn teeth. One of his front paws had several broken claws and was entirely missing a fifth claw. A quick look at a hind foot showed it measured five and a-half inches across. Turnbull’s hands moved over the bear with the confidence and familiarity of one who has handled a lot of bears, and he repeatedly checked the bear’s respiration, with quick taps on the bruin’s nose to be sure the slumber was a deep one.

Turnbull and Gregory drew blood and hair samples from the bear while awaiting word of his fate. When the call came on the radio, it was no surprise that the bear would be destroyed instead of relocated. The decision to relocate or remove a bear is made after considering a number of variables including age and sex of the bear, behavioral traits, health status, physical injuries or abnormalities, type of conflict, severity of conflict, known history of the bear, human safety concerns, and population management objectives. Turnbull quietly and professionally gave the bear a lethal injection as it continued to sleep from its earlier tranquilizer.

Turnbull climbed out of the trap as the bear’s last breath escaped its body, acknowledging as he did so the sadness of having to kill such an animal. But the bear had lived a long life and had probably done his share of contributing to the gene pool many times over. Wounds such as those he had suffered would take their toll on his aging body, and he could have died from those wounds, or those suffered in future battles, or starved in his winter den. Death in nature is never pleasant and often involves suffering. Instead, this bear had feasted on fresh beef for his last meal, and his life exited his body under the respectful hands of a caring wildlife professional. Perhaps it was not such a bad ending after all.

Grizzly bears in the Yellowstone ecosystem were listed as a threatened species in 1976, when there were as few as 136 grizzlies remaining in the region. Today the minimum population estimate for Yellowstone grizzlies stands at 650, and may in fact be closer to 1,000, according to state wildlife officials. The Upper Green River Cattle Allotment is located more than 25 miles outside the original grizzly bear recovery zone, but grizzlies moved back into the area and began killing cattle in the mid-1990s. The grizzly bear population has since expanded to the point it is fairly common to see bears in this area, and much is done to reduce the severity and frequency of depredations on livestock. Cattle producers and agency personnel intensively monitor the allotments for large carnivore conflicts, and wildlife agency personnel respond to confirmed depredations by attempting to trap and remove the offending animals. Generally if it’s a first-time offense, the bear can be relocated to another area not containing livestock, but if it’s a repeat offender, the animal may be killed, removing it from the population entirely. Of the six grizzlies trapped in the Upper Green River region so far this year, four were relocated while two were destroyed.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its interagency cooperators believe that the Yellowstone grizzly bear population represents a viable population that is no longer in need of federal protections. The prompt removal of problem bears is believed to generate support for grizzly bear presence in local communities that co-inhabit these regions. Eliminating problem animals also helps reduce the likelihood that undesirable behaviors will be passed on or learned from bear-to-bear.

Those using the Upper Green and other areas of the Yellowstone ecosystem that grizzlies now inhabit are urged to follow proper safety precautions while enjoying the outdoors, including carrying bear pepper spray; keeping clean camps; hiking in groups and making noise while doing so; and compliance with area closures. If an area has been closed to human presence because of grizzly bear activity, for your own safety, conduct your outdoor activities in some other area not subject to closure.

Turnbull and Gregory loaded the dead bear’s carcass into the back of Gregory’s pickup truck so it could be transported to a WG&F office. Bear 304’s body will be handled by a taxidermist, and given to an educational institution as a tool to educate people about grizzly bears and their ecology. Bear 304’s impact on the ecosystem will be felt for years to come. Cheers, old bear!

Fall in Yellowstone

Jim and I spent part of the week sorting sheep and doing most of our fall shipping, so we rewarded ourselves with a quick trip to Yellowstone National Park. After a breakfast in Jackson Hole, we headed north toward Moran Junction in Grand Teton National Park, and a black wolf crossed the road in front of us along the way. I wasn't fast enough at getting the truck pulled off the side of the highway to get a photo.

The highlight of the day was the raven that followed us around near Fishing Bridge, inside the park. It's hard to get decent photos of ravens, so I was pleased to have such an opportunity to try to capture the beauty of this bird, with its beautiful black feathers in its textured pattern.


It was a beautiful day, with the changing fall colors providing for brilliant yellows, reds and oranges across the landscape. There were still a lot of tourists in the park, and we laughed that the biggest traffic jams we saw were not "wolf jams" or "bear jams" but bison jams!


This is what the large population of bison and elk have done to Alum Creek, turning it into a mud flat (although the elk population has crashed in recent years). Alum Creek actually looks better now than it did 20 years ago, with some grass species starting to work their way back along the edges. It is still the most degraded riparian area I've ever seen in Wyoming. The nearest lodgepole pine trees to the creek (which are up on the hillsides, out of the picture) have been girdled - bison stripped all the bark off the trees for forage in the winter. If our livestock range looked like this, we'd be out of business.


We dug around in a few piles of bison dung and found it was rich with insect life, with a large variety of species represented. That's one advantage of bison protection inside the park – the use of pesticides outside protected areas results in less insect life in dung. Dung can be an important food source for a variety of bird life, including everything from burrowing owls to sage grouse. We debated bootlegging dung out of the park to perform our own reintroduction process, but didn't do it. Yes, it would have been illegal. Heck, it was probably illegal for us to be digging around in the dung with sticks!

We were also rather irritated about how much of the park was closed due to grizzly bear danger. Seems that the current thinking is that if grizzlies are present, that's reason enough to close an area.


There's certainly no shortage of grizzlies, and no shortage of people who are willing to get way too close. We saw a young grizzly (wearing a radio collar) working his way down a hillside. When we visit the park, we usually see a bear within about a mile of this location, so it's somewhat of a regular bear crossing.


Unfortunately, people aren't very willing to give bears much room to cross the highway. The red color on the left edge of the photo below is the car I kept between my body and the bear.


The last images I'm sharing today are of a new outhouse in the park - part of our economic recovery dollars at work. Notice the sign, and a slight alteration that had been added to the sign by a visitor. I know that guy, and drank a beer with him a few minutes later. (He took his handiwork down before we left). He suggested I call this post "A mature couple visits Yellowstone," but our behavior suggests we're lacking in the maturity department.



Yellowstone really is a fabulous place to visit, and hopefully we can squeeze in another trip to the park later this fall. It's a magical place when there is snow falling and most of the humans have left for the season.

Reducing carnivore conflicts

Many Q readers are familiar with my family’s varied efforts to keep large carnivores from preying on our domestic sheep, and of my firm belief that we wouldn’t be in the sheep business without the use of livestock protection dogs.

This time I’m going to share a story of the efforts of family friends, the Thomans, and what their situation is like every summer as they graze three domestic sheep flocks in the Upper Green River region of the Bridger-Teton National Forest north of Pinedale, Wyoming. The late Bill Thoman is the reason I’m in the sheep business – he introduced me to orphan lambs, and my ewe herd originated on his ranch. Bill died in a tragic accident a few years ago, and now it’s the Thoman women who run the ranch full time – a big western range cattle and sheep operation. That’s my friend Mary Thoman riding the range in the Upper Green, with sheep in the background, in the photo above.

At the same time Jim and I received grant funding from the Wyoming Animal Damage Management Board for our international research project on Old World guardian dogs last year, the Thoman ranches received funding to install electric fences as portable night pens on their mountain grazing allotments.

Installation of the night pens last summer allowed for the sheep and sheepherders to be protected, while reducing the number of grizzly bears removed from the area due to conflict.

Mary said the project was a success, letting sheep rest at night. The result was that her family’s four-month old lambs came off the mountain at a record weight of 96 pounds. She reported that the herds were calm after resting all night instead of running from predators as had been the case the last few years with increased grizzly bear and gray wolf populations on the allotments.

The Thoman family has grazed four allotments in the Elk Ridge Complex in the Upper Green for 34 years, and has experienced increased conflicts with large carnivores in recent years. The ranch places three herds of about 1,000-head of sheep, on the allotments for grazing from July through September each year, leaving one allotment to rest annually.

One of the allotments was frequented by 12 grizzly bears and four black bears in 2010, and two black bears were removed by wildlife managers in response to depredations. A second herd was harassed by two grizzly bear sows and their cubs, and two wolves, with one grizzly bear removed by state officials. A third sheep herd had two or three grizzly bears, six wolves, and a mountain lion around it all summer. The sheep were safe at night, but these big predators were successful in preying on the herds in daylight hours.

“The major killing occurred during the daytime when small groups of sheep were run up into the timber or rocks and then killed,” she reported.

Here’s a photo of a trap used to live capture bears, parked outside the night pen.

State and federal wildlife managers and animal damage experts were on the scene to help minimize livestock losses and document problems, but losses to predators were substantial again in 2010. Mary said that the losses would have been “astronomical” without the use of the night pens.

In 2010, predators killed 259 ewes and 186 lambs, with a total value of about $65,000. The Thomans received nearly $54,000 in damage compensation by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, with the ranch forced to absorb the remaining $11,000 loss on its own.

Livestock losses due to large carnivores on the allotments have increased steadily in recent years, with damage ranging from about $17,000 in 2005, to $40,000 in 2008, and 2010’s $65,000. Mary said that while the ranch had made adjustments to try to control losses, the arrival of female grizzlies with cubs resulted in a doubling of livestock losses.

One night in late September, a female grizzly and her cub attempted to dig underneath the electric fence to get to the sheep inside, but failed. The trench left by the digging bruins was an impressive sight.

“With the nightly use of pens, the herders were able to secure the three herds at night and did not have to jeopardize their lives to check on sheep that may have been attacked by bears or wolves,” Mary said.


One of the Thoman’s sheepherders was mauled by a grizzly bear during the 2009 grazing season when he stepped away from his tent to check on a barking livestock protection dog.

While the night pens were deemed a success, not all deterrents worked as well. Herders on one allotment used a large spotlight on the back of their tent to discourage grizzly bears, while another used a small electric pen around his sleeping tent. Herders using an air horn to scare bears away found it worked to deter black bears, but actually attracted the curiosity of grizzlies. Flashlights had no deterrent effects at all. Herders had to be moved out of their tent and into a sheep wagon until electric pens could be set up around their campsites once a grizzly threatened to enter the herder camp.

Herders stay in these hard-sided camps as much as possible, but when the herds are moved too deep into the backcountry, or into the wilderness, they sleep in tents.


On another occasion, a sow grizzly and her cub became entangled in the electric fence around a herd, gaining entrance and killing about 20 sheep. Thoman fears a repeat performance from this sow: “This bear may acclimate to swatting the pen, as this was the second attempt she made at entering the pen.”

The Thomans use a variety of deterrents, from a half-dozen livestock protection dogs with each herd, to bear-proof containers utilized for storage of food and supplies.

Here’s a photo of one of the storage boxes for dog food, followed by a bear-resistant shed for larger items.


Herders working for the Thoman ranch do not carry firearms, but are supplied with pepper spray. The herders receive training in safety and in food storage requirements.

The Thomans use livestock protection dogs that have proven to be very effective against male grizzlies, but have limited effectiveness with bear family groups, and with wolves. Wolves killed four of the Thoman guardian dogs in 2004.


Mary’s family’s expenses and presence on the allotment has increased four-fold during the last few years due to increased predator presence.

Despite the large carnivore conflicts, the Thomans maintain that these four allotments are some of the best in America, producing fat lambs averaging 90 pounds at 120 days of age, in a manner that maintains a pristine environment. Mary fears that multiple use management is falling by the wayside on the allotments, with the Endangered Species Act driving management, and inflexible U.S. Forest Service regulations and officials putting the squeeze on her family’s future on the allotments.

Mary said her family either needs to see an increase in agency cooperation, or she might end up seeking an allotment buy-out to end her family’s grazing tradition. My community, as well as these mountains the sheep graze, would feel that loss and I hope it doesn't happen. I'd like to see Mary's family continue domestic sheep use on the western range for many years to come.

This is ranch matriarch Mickey Thoman with daughter Mary Thoman.