Photos indicate a grizzly bear spent at least part of this past fall in the forests of north central Idaho. A hunter captured the images in the woods near Elk City, approximately 120 miles south and east of Lewiston, and the second known grizzly in that approximate location.
“It’s definitely a grizzly,” Jim Alfrey, told the Lewiston Tribune. “I know for sure it’s a grizzly bear. I’ve shot a lot of black bears. If you look at it compared to the 55-gallon drum, you could put almost three 55-gallon drums inside of it.”
Various reports over the last few years show the grizzly population spreading across Wyoming and the Montana prairie and even Montana’s Bitterroot Valley.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service delisted the Greater Yellowstone grizzly population in both 2007 and 2017 only to have a judge return it to federal protection after litigation filed by environmental groups.
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation maintains that the grizzly population is recovered and should be subject to state management.
(Photo source: Jim Alfrey)