Horses Staring Down Grizzly Bear

Jackson Hole Daily, Mike Koshmrl– At least three head of cattle have been lost to grizzly bear depredation in the first few weeks of the grazing season in the vast Upper Green River rangeland complex southeast of Jackson Hole.

Although conflict started up almost immediately this year, so far it’s not happening at the same clip as 2015, a record year for cattle being killed at Union Pass, said Albert Sommers, president of the Upper Green River Cattle Association.

“I think the first day we had cattle in any pasture last year we got hit, so I don’t think it’s as bad at the moment as it was last year,” Sommers said. “It’s really too early to tell.

“They moved enough bears last year that maybe it’ll help reduce conflict this year,” he said.

Over the course of summer and fall a year ago, grizzly bears were confirmed to have killed at least 79 head of livestock.

That was the year with the most livestock-grizzly conflicts in history for the most conflict-ridden swath of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Five repeat-offender bears were trapped and euthanized in response, and another nine bruins were captured and relocated elsewhere.

The annual pulse of bloodshed on the cattle association’s expansive grazing allotments, which spill over into the Gros Ventre River drainage, comes while there’s a proposal on the table to “delist” grizzlies as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

The Bridger-Teton National Forest, which permits the grazing, is also in the final stages of preparing a long-awaited environmental impact statement.

That impact statement could renew the cattle association’s grazing permits well into the future.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is actively trying to identify offending grizzlies and has traps currently set out on the range.

“They have made trapping efforts,” Sommers said, “but as far as I know they haven’t got anything.”

Sommers, who’s also Sublette County’s representative in the Wyoming House, said it looks like more than one grizzly this summer has developed a taste for beef.

“It’s most definitely two different bears, just based on geography,” he said.

“The Mosquito Lake kill and Mud Lake West kill weren’t all that far apart, but the Tosi Creek one is kind of in another drainage entirely,” Sommers said.

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