Last spring, the accused, Joel Proffit and his son set out on a black bear hunt in the North Fork area near Cody. Looking to spend some time afield, the two came upon a bear that was seemingly difficult to identify.
Instructing his son to pull the trigger on what we determined to be a black bear, the pair quickly realized that a serious mistake had been made and immediately alerted state officials. A Game and Fish warden was dispatched to the scene and following a quick field autopsy, confirmed that the deceased animal was in fact a grizzly bear.
Circuit Court Judge Ed Luhm handed down the sentence earlier this month and determined that because Proffit immediately reported the accident and pleaded no contest, he would forgo the usual $10,000 fine and one year in jail for the violation. Instead, he ordered restitution in the amount of $10,000 to the state’s Game and Fish Department for instructing his son to take the shot.
Take Your Bear Exam
As with any endeavor that involves pointing a high-powered rifle at anything with a heartbeat, proper identification is something that is non-negotiable. With a variety of both black bears and grizzly bears in Wyoming, officials encourage bear hunters to properly prepare for their hunt.
In an effort to help would-be hunters decipher between say a cinnamon-phase black bear and a grizzly, the Game and Fish Department has an interactive quiz on their website to test your knowledge.
Take the quiz here.
While I consider myself somewhat of a bear man, I ran the test and ended up mistakenly identifying a grizzly cub as a black bear. Despite my best efforts of a perfect score, I still ended up getting one question wrong. And in the field, that is sometimes all it takes to end up with a big ol’ fine.
