Grand Teton National Park officials, in coordination with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, have euthanized a highly food-conditioned, four-year-old female grizzly bear in the park.
This action was taken Saturday after the bear received numerous food rewards from unsecured sources on private land just south of the park, causing it to exhibit increasingly bold behavior. This behavior caused the bear to pose a threat to human safety requiring it to be removed from the population. Park officials say that over the course of two years, the grizzly received multiple food rewards including from bear-resistant containers, and demonstrated escalating conflict behaviors.
Over time, food conditioned bears may become bold or aggressive in their attempts to obtain human food, as was the case with this bear. The food rewards included garbage, chicken feed, livestock feed and bird feed. As the grizzly bear population continues to expand in the southern end of the GYE, bears continue to disperse outside of Grand Teton National Park, and residents of the local communities are encouraged to secure attractants around their homes.
