Grizzly bear, cubs killed by trains near Glacier National Park

By Pete Thomas

A grizzly bear and her two yearling cubs were killed by train strikes earlier this month near Glacier National Park.

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks explained in a news release issued Monday that the bears had been grazing alongside railroad tracks two miles east of Marias Pass, in Glacier County, when the first collision occurred at about 4:19 a.m. on June 6.

That claimed the life of the mother bear, a 232-pound animal that was captured and released 19 years ago as part of a Glacier National Park research effort.

Her two cubs, weighing about 65 pounds apiece, were struck later on June 6 by a different train in the same area.

FWP had been investigating the strikes and could not find evidence of attractants that might have lured the bears toward the tracks. The agency has been working with other agencies and railroad companies to try to minimize these types of incidents.

More than 1,000 grizzly bears reside within the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem, a designated grizzly bear recovery zone that includes Glacier National Park, portions of five national forests, and parts of the Flathead and Blackfeet Indian Reservations.

–Generic grizzly bear image courtesy of ©Pete Thomas