Hunter cited for illegal killing of grizzly in North Idaho
May 15—Game wardens have issued a citation to a hunter who shot a grizzly bear in North Idaho last week.
Speaking to a meeting of grizzly bear managers Thursday, Idaho Department of Fish and Game Panhandle Regional Supervisor Carson Watkins said the hunter killed the bear in the Lucky Creek drainage north of Priest Lake in Bonner County.
The hunter mistook the grizzly for a black bear and immediately reported himself to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Grizzly bears are protected under the Endangered Species Act and under Idaho state law.
Watkins said wardens investigated the incident and cited the hunter for killing an animal in a closed season, which comes with a maximum penalty of a fine of $10,000, up to 6 months in jail and a potential loss of hunting privileges.
TJ Ross, a Fish and Game spokesman, said that because the hunter was forthcoming and self-reported the killing, agency officials will work with Bonner County prosecutors to try to ensure the penalty reflects that.
Fish and Game officials declined to release the hunter's name. A call to the Bonner County Prosecutor's Office on Thursday afternoon was not returned before deadline.
It was the second time in the past three years that a spring black bear hunter had mistakenly shot a grizzly in the Priest Lake area. This instance also came in the first season since Idaho began requiring black bear hunters to pass a bear identification test.
Watkins said the hunter had passed the test "days before he went bear hunting."
The 5-year-old female bear had an ear tag and had just shed a radio collar that had been put on last August, according to Wayne Kasworm, the Libby-based grizzly bear biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Kasworm's crews first collared the bear in 2022 and reattached it this past summer. At that time, it weighed about 200 pounds.
When the bear emerged from its den this spring, however, it left the collar behind. Kasworm said bears sometimes lose collars that fit poorly or grow out of them.
He said it hadn't produced cubs. Grizzlies don't typically reproduce until they're six or seven years old.
The bear spent most of its time in the portion of the Selkirk Range north of Priest Lake.
Based on DNA sampling and images gathered on trail cameras, Kasworm's monitoring team has found there are at least 57 individual grizzlies in the U.S. portion of the Selkirks.
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