Black Or Grizzly? Information On Stevensville Bear Sightings

There have been some recent bear sightings in the Stevensville, Montana area. In order to clarify what bears are being see the Stevensville Police Department has posted information on their Facebook Page about the situation.

There Are a Lot of Bears In the Bitterroot Valley

That's not to say there aren't grizzly bears in the Bitterroot, there are. I spoke with James Jonkel from Fish Wildlife and Parks he is the Bear Manager for Region 2 about the bears. He had this to say about the bears in the Bitterroot Valley.

In the Bitterroot there are lots and lots of black bears and they come in every color under the sun. Every month we get multiple photographs of bears from the Bitterroot, that people think are grizzlies, are actual black bears.

There Are Grizzlies in the Bitterroot Valley Mountains

There are grizzly bears in the Bitterroot Valley, according to James:

We are starting to see more and more grizzlies move down into the Bitterroot Valley. Not the valley itself, but the mountain ranges on each side. In the Sapphire Range and even in the Bitterroot Range on the Idaho side, the last 10 years we've got verified reports of grizzlies... The majority of the bears seem to be coming down out of the Ovando Helmville country... Anymore people should expect that, grizzly bears are showing up in the Bitterroot.

 

If you want to keep track of bear activity in our area, you can go to Missoulabears.org and find our more information. You can get bear, and mountain lion sighting information on that site. The bear manager for the Bitterroot Valley is Bruce Montgomery who can be reached at 406-542-5500.