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Monster Grizzly hit by truck |
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This monster grizzly was hit by a truck near Lincoln, Montana. Check out those claws!
It weighed 830 pounds, which makes it one of the three largest bears ever documented in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, Chris Servheen from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said.
It was no stranger in Lincoln, though residents rarely saw it.
Pat Shanley, a biologist in the Helena National Forest's Lincoln Ranger District, said the bear was suspected of once lifting a bull elk out of the bed of a full-sized pickup truck.
"He was a very imposing bear," Shanley said.
The bear also survived a collision with a vehicle along Teton Road near Choteau in 1996, where it started out its life. It also apparently survived being shot.
After it was fatally struck in October, buckshot was found in his backside and head.
The grizzly bear, currently being held in a FWP freezer, is planned to be stuffed and displayed in Montana. Several communities are fighting for that honor.
"I can't remember a time we've had multiple requests for one particular animal," Servheen said.
Several groups in Lincoln, including multiple elementary school children, and a booster with UM's Grizzly Scholarship Association, sent letters to Servheen and Hagener expressing interest.
The bear, by law, can be used only for an educational use and must carry a message of conservation because grizzlies are protected, Servheen said. The bear could legally be placed in a school, government building or not-for-profit facility, but not a store.
Authorities will try to find another bear hide for the group that doesn't receive a mount of the 830-pound bear, he said.
"Lincoln is the bear's natural habitat," Lincoln elementary student Megan Rouse reminded Servheen, who also is the nation's grizzly bear recovery coordinator, in a letter dated Nov. 27. "Even though the bear is dead, you should treat it like it's alive. Which means you shouldn't move it out of its natural habitat."
Shanley said the Lincoln Ranger District of the U.S. Forest Service office would be a perfect place for the bear. The massive mount could be used to teach hunters, hikers and tourists to be respectful when recreating in bear country.
"It gives you a little stronger impression — a very lasting impression," he said.
UM officials think the bear would be a good fit on campus
There are three mounted grizzly bears in the Sky Club, where private meetings and social events are conducted in the university's Adams Center. A fourth is displayed in the center's Hall of Fame Chambers.
Not all of those bears are grizzlies from Montana, said O'Day, the athletic director, and the size of the 830-pounder makes it stand out.
Earl Sherron of Missoula, a Grizzlies booster, thinks the Adams Center would be a great place to display the bear because it gets a lot of foot traffic and the grizzly is the university's mascot. The athletic department agrees.
"It's going to be pretty impressive wherever it ends up," O'Day said.
The bear was suspected of breaking into cabins and storage sheds in search of food this last summer and fall, but that hasn't diminished the respect of Lincoln residents.
Three of the break-ins occurred at the home of Dennis and Sue Smrdel on Highway 200 five miles west of Lincoln. The first time, the bear consumed 36 pounds of cat food and half of a 30-gallon drum of sunflower seeds. They still want the bear back in Lincoln.
"It would be such an amazing teaching tool for people," Dennis Smrdel said.
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