A Montana man in search of shed antlers put a grizzly bear on the ground in the name of self-defense after a tense encounter on private property late last month.
Working the side of a snow-covered ridge, the hunter first spotted the bear’s tracks in the snow before catching a glimpse of the animal about 20 yards away. With his two dogs in tow, “the bear dropped to all four legs and charged the man, who drew his handgun and fired five shots from a distance about 30 feet to 10 feet, grazing the bear with one shot and hitting and killing it with another,” a release from MFWP states.
The hunter’s identity has yet to be released amid the on-going investigation by US Fish and Wildlife.
According to the MFWP, the adult female bear was thought to have been in good health and weighed around 300 pounds at the time of the incident. The 12-year-old sow had a single cub-of-the-year nearby that was later captured by officials. The cub is now with management specialists at FWP’s wildlife rehab center in Helena as officials work to find a permanent home for the young cub.
As bears emerge from their dens, encounters like this are bound to take place. This marks the first self-defense killing of a grizzly bear so far this year on the lower 48.
