This is about the third time, in recent years, that a person has been charged with shooting a grizzly bear on the North Fork Highway. One was a G&F large carnivore biologist about 10 years ago. The claim is they mistook it for a black bear. Fines and other penalties usually follow.
I have lived in this part of Wyoming for about 23 years. I can count on less than two hands how many black bears I have seen within 30 miles of YNP. I have only see two that would qualify as adult male black bears. One was on the Upper Dillworth Bench and the other was in the Sunlight backcountry. A couple weeks ago,I saw a juvenile black bear on the Sunlight Road. He was hauling azz. In the same period of time, I have seen hundreds of grizzly bears.
My advice to black bear hunters who can’t tell the difference between a black bear or a grizzly bear is don’t hunt black bears. Should the G&F stop black bear hunting within 30 miles of YNP? I don’t think so. If you aren’t darn sure what you are shooting at, don’t shoot. The grizzly bear shot a few weeks ago, darn sure looked like a big boar grizzly to me.
When I lived in North Idaho, we had both. The black bear population was a lot higher than the grizzly bear population. In all that time, I only saw one bear that left me wondering. His color phase and large size threw me off. When I got a loser look, I let my friend shoot it. It was a very large black bear with a beautiful hide.
just sayin…Mh