A Lovell man says he\u2019s reasonably sure a bear he briefly spotted off Dayton Gulch Road in the Bighorn Mountains\u00a0last week was a grizzly.<\/p>\n
Casey Jones told Cowboy State Daily he saw the bear at about 3:30 or 4 p.m. July 2, and caught a video of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hump between the shoulders, that\u2019s what got me to thinking it\u2019s a grizzly,\u201d he\u00a0said during a telephone interview Thursday when he had brief\u00a0service from the Bighorns.<\/p>\n
His father, Levi Jones of Lovell, posted the video on social media, igniting a debate over whether the bear is\u00a0in fact a grizzly\u00a0or a member of the Bighorns\u2019 significant population of black bears.<\/p>\n
Retired Wyoming\u00a0Game and Fish Department biologist Mark Bruscino viewed the video and told Cowboy State Daily that \u201cI can\u2019t tell for sure\u201d whether the bear is a grizzly from the brief, distant clip.<\/p>\n
Casey Jones said the bear is the first he\u2019s ever seen in the Bighorns that he suspects\u00a0is a grizzly, although he\u2019s seen what he thought were grizzly tracks.<\/p>\n
He added that he hasn\u2019t seen the bear since he took the video or heard of anybody else in the Bighorns\u00a0spotting it.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Reports Over The Years<\/p>\n
Rumors of grizzlies in the Bighorns have abounded for years.<\/p>\n
Bruscino recalled getting reports as far back as the early 1990s.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had regular reports of them (grizzlies) in the Bighorns. And those that we followed up for\u00a0we had no evidence\u00a0or we confirmed that they were black bears,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Bruscino worked for Game and Fish for 29 years before retiring in 2013. He served as game warden, a trophy-game conflict officer and the large carnivore services supervisor.<\/p>\n
The only officially verified grizzly in the Bighorns in recent memory was a sub-adult male found near Ten Sleep<\/a>\u00a0in April 2024. Wildlife agents killed that bear for preying on livestock.<\/p>\n John Baughman served as Game and Fish director\u00a0from 1996-2002 and told Cowboy State Daily he recalled the department getting reports of grizzlies in unusual places during his tenure, but never a confirmed sighting in the Bighorns.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was one (grizzly) over by Cowley\u201d in Big Horn County, he said.<\/p>\n And there were also frequent sightings of grizzlies near Ralston, in eastern Park County, Baughman said.<\/p>\n Grizzlies would also frequently show up in the fall east of Clark, also in Park County, drawn by ripening Russian olive trees.<\/p>\n \u201cThose bears are crazy for Russian olives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n How Could They Get There?<\/p>\n Bruscino said if the bear in Jones\u2019 video is a grizzly it will likely show up somewhere else in the area and be confirmed.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no evidence of an established population of grizzlies in the Bighorns, he said.<\/p>\n For one thing, numerous domestic sheep\u00a0flocks are in the Bighorns. Grizzlies are known to prey on sheep, so there would be numerous reports of attacks if grizzlies frequented the mountains, he said.<\/p>\n However, it\u2019s \u201cnot inconceivable\u201d for an \u201coccasional disperser” to wander into the Bighorns, Bruscino said.<\/p>\n Dispersers,\u00a0or lone bears roaming great distances, tend to be young males, he said.<\/p>\n And grizzlies are expanding their territory across the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Bruscino noted.<\/p>\n \u201cExpansion is happening. It\u2019s happened over the decades, that\u2019s obvious and documented,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n As to how a grizzly might reach the Bighorns, there are a few paths that could take.<\/p>\n A grizzly could follow the Clark\u2019s Fork of the Yellowstone River toward the Pryor Mountains and then keep moving into the Bighorns, Bruscino said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey could also possibly come across the Bighorn Basin undetected by following the Greybull or Shoshone rivers,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n A grizzly might also traverse the Meeteetse rim to reach the Bighorns. Or one could also make a long circle around the Owl Creek Mountains, he said.<\/p>\n Difficult To Tell<\/p>\n Distinguishing a grizzly from a black bear can be difficult, even for professionals, Bruscino said. \u00a0<\/p>\n He recalled that members of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team would sometimes \u201csend pictures of bears back and forth,\u201d challenging each other to identify them as black bears or grizzlies. And sometimes, biologists would get the wrong answer.<\/p>\n Grizzlies can be mistaken for black bears when they\u2019re wet\u00a0because that can push down the fur around their telltale humps, he said. And a wet coat will also make a grizzly\u2019s ears look larger.<\/p>\n Larger ears in proportion to the head are one telltale sign of a black bear.<\/p>\n He recalled an incident when he and another biologist were arguing over whether a bear caught in a snare was a grizzly or a black bear.<\/p>\n After they moved in to tranquilize and examine the bear, it turned out to be a female grizzly with a wet coat, Bruscino said. \u00a0<\/p>\n Game and Fish has an online quiz<\/a>\u00a0challenging viewers to determine whether bears in a series of photographs are grizzlies or black bears.<\/p>\n Always Be Bear Safe<\/p>\n Casey Jones noted that the area where he spotted the alleged grizzly isn\u2019t far from where two campers, Shonna Kaye Dehl of Lovell and Maggie Bassett of Powell, were driven from their camp by an aggressive black bear<\/a>\u00a0on Sunday.<\/p>\n In an email to Cowboy State Daily, Game and Fish large-carnivore specialist Dan Thompson said the agency can\u2019t offer comment on any particular video shared to social media.<\/p>\n He added that bear safety protocols, such as securing food around campsites, should be observed, regardless of which bear species is in the area.<\/p>\n