Wildlife investigators in eastern Idaho were unable to find a grizzly bear wounded a day earlier by elk hunters as they tried to retrieve a six-point bull elk carcass in the Island Park area west of Yellowstone National Park.
Steve Schmidt of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game said a team of seven well-armed wildlife officers reported finding the blood trail of the bear near the elk carcass but that it disappeared after about 460 yards.
The elk was killed by an eastern Idaho archery hunter whose name isn’t being released. The hunter and four others told investigtors they went to retrieve the elk when the bear charged. The hunters said they fired about a dozen shots with handguns and a shotgun before the bear turned and ran, leaving behind a blood trail.
Schmidt said the team of five Fish and Game officers and two U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officers flushed a grizzly bear from the carcass when they arrived, but it’s unknown if that’s the same bear wounded the day before.
Fish and Wildlife is investigating along with Fish and Game because grizzly bears are a threatened species. Schmidt said the group contained a grizzly bear expert who identified the track of the wounded bear as an adult grizzly, but couldn’t estimate its size or determine its gender.
“The blood trail petered out and they did not find the bear and they could not follow the trail any father,” Schmidt said. “At this point their belief is that the bear is not critically injured. It’s very possible the bear might recover from whatever injuries it has, but that’s unknown, of course.”
No word on whether the wounded grizzly posed greater risk of attack if encountered.