A river guide came across something she didn’t expect to see in the Yellowstone River near Gardiner, Montana earlier this week—a headless, pawless grizzly bear carcass. Her photo of it in the river has caused quite a stir. And you can imagine all the questions people have. Turns out, there’s a logical explanation for this morbid scene.
Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (FWP) officials confirmed to local 8KPAX News that they euthanized this grizzly bear after it had a series of run-ins with humans over the past several weeks, including breaking into a home. In an interview with 8KPAX, Morgan Jacobsen with FWP says officials euthanized the bear while it was in the river.
Officials then located the carcass, which had floated quite a ways downstream, determined they could not recover it, then removed the bear’s head and paws, leaving the headless, pawless grizzly carcass. FWP says they had to do this.
“Something that we are required to do as an agency by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is to remove any parts of that . . . carcass that has potential monetary value, so that includes the head and the paws,” Jacobsen told 8KPAX.
Though he doesn’t explain further, we assume this requirement is in place to prevent people from harvesting these body parts for their own monetary gain. Jacobsen says this situation is preventable. If you live in bear country, take care to remove bear attractants from your property to avoid unnecessary encounters.
When bears realize they can get an easy meal by visiting humans, they can become problem animals that end up requiring action on the part of wildlife authorities. Sometimes, this means euthanizing them to protect human life.
Header image courtesy of Trisha McFarland via 8KPAX News.