KALISPELL – State wildlife officials report that a male grizzly bear was killed in a train collision earlier this week on the railroad tracks near West Glacier.
The two-year-old bear was wearing a GPS radio collar, which notified Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks of the animal’s location near Nyack Flats.
The collision occurred on the evening of Sept. 10, 2018, according to FWP spokesman Dillon Tabish.
FWP personnel retrieved the carcass the next morning and confirmed the cause of death through a necropsy. FWP notified BNSF Railway and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Tabish said the bear was originally captured and fitted with a radio collar at the end of May east of Bigfork and it was translocated to the east side of Hungry Horse Reservoir.
Tabish notes that so far this year, 33 grizzly bear mortalities have been identified in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem due to a variety of circumstances.
The NCDE is home to more than 1,000 grizzly bears.
