If I believed every outfitter, cowboy, or hunter I talked to the entire map of the state should be purple. I am no longer surprised, but I continue to be disappointed by the number of lifelong outdoorsman that can't tell a grizzly apart from a black bear.
I have no doubt that grizzly bears are present in many areas outside of their documented range, however I take undocumented sightings with a great deal of skepticism.
I don't think any of the purple areas have had documented females denning with young which is a major criteria for establishing the existence of a resident population. On second thought there was a female with young that denned in Idaho unit 4 years ago but she moved into Montana the following year.
There was a gps-collared young male in 2019 that travelled from NW Montana south to unit 17 in Idaho, and then all the way back to NW Montana in the span of 3 months. Another grizzly was captured on trail cameras in unit 14 that same year, genetic testing showed that bear had also originated from the Selkirks/Cabinet region near the canadian border. Fresh tracks were seen again the following spring. I haven't heard anything more about that bear since.
Fresh grizzly bear tracks were confirmed by a Fish and Game conservation officer in the Fish Creek Meadows winter recreation area about 7 miles south of Grangeville on April 18, 2020. It is uncertain if the grizzly is still be in the area or has moved on.
idfg.idaho.gov
A young male grizzly that made his way into the national Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness near the Montana-Idaho border this year has made the trek back to…
www.mtpr.org
A member of this forum posted a photo of a grizzly bear that he said was on one of his black bear bait sites in the lochsa region in 2016.
I believe that for every one of these documented sightings there are several more that are going unnoticed. I wonder if the bears that are out there have established home ranges or if they are transients looking for other bears where there are none or few to be found.
