A hitchhiker you don't want to pick up!

[MarvB]

You bear baiters may want to start using your vehicles to entice them

Burglarizing bear euthanized
By TRISTAN SCOTT of the Missoulian

After supping on candy bars, garbage and frozen foods in the Grant Creek area for months, a 300-pound black bear became trapped inside a pickup truck Wednesday morning while foraging for snacks.

The adult bear had successfully dodged a number of traps set out by authorities after a string of complaints from residents alerted game wardens to its presence in the area.

The animal was extremely adept at foraging for food in vehicles, having learned to unlatch the door handles properly, and had even figured out how to open garage doors and deep freezers.

And while his was a movable feast, the bear's fun ended early Wednesday morning after climbing into a four-door Chevrolet pickup truck. The door swung shut, trapping the animal inside for several hours before the owner of the truck awoke to the sound of his horn honking.

Officials with Montana's Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks managed to tranquilize the bear with four darts, but had to euthanize the animal after learning it had been trapped in a residential area before, as per department policy.

“The really sad thing out of this whole deal is the bear had been trapped before for similar types of activity,” said Jeff Darrah, a warden captain in Missoula. “He had been ear-tagged during a previous encounter, so he was on his last strike and had to be put down.”

According to Matt Stonesifer, an FWP game warden, officials captured the bear last June in Upper Grant Creek using a culvert trap. It was relocated to Lolo Pass, on the border of Montana and Idaho, but found its way back to Missoula.

“Our policy says a bear must be relocated 50 air miles from the site of its capture,” Stonesifer said. “We take the animal to a remote area with good bear habitat.”

“That's 50 air miles, so he must have covered well over 75 or 100 miles to get back here,” he said. “He knew how not to get caught because he'd been trapped before.”

Stonesifer said bear biologists maintain capture and release information whenever a bear is tagged, which tells officials where the bear was trapped, why he was in trouble and where he was relocated.

Darrah said another tragedy befell the truck's owner.
“He (the bear) pretty much destroyed the inside of a brand new truck,” Darrah said.

Photographs of the truck's interior show the bear tore off the truck's door panels and defecated on the seats.

“It's sad, but the reason for tagging a bear is so we have a tracking number,” Stonesifer said. “That way we can deal with its accountability. We will relocate a bear once, unless he poses a threat to public safety. But if we catch that same bear a second time, we have to destroy him.”

 

[DRAFTSTUD]

Dude! I would have a new set of Bearhide seatcovers. John

 

[noharleyyet]

Maybe the Idaho boys should start using chevys for bait buckets.

 

[Ike]

Don't you hate it when a darn bear defecates in your truck?hump |oo

keep'em treed,
ike