COLVILLE, Wash. — UPDATE: The Washington Department of Fish and WIldlife posted a picture on Tuesday showing the bear getting a checkup before being returned "back into a more appropriate habitat."
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) captured a young grizzly bear in Stevens County this week.
According to the Stevens County Sheriff's Office, the bear had "made it's home" in the Onion Creek area north of Colville. The bear had broken into a chicken coop and stole food. The sheriff's office said it used non-lethal deterrents like hotwires, but the bear kept returning to kill chickens.
WDFW and the sheriff's office wildlife specialist were able to trap the bear. The sheriff's office said the bear was turned over to U.S. Fish and Wildlife (USFW) to be collared and relocated to where grizzly bears are located.
"Although black bears can be dangerous, they usually are more of a nuisance," the sheriff's office said in a Facebook post. "Grizzly bears are generally considered to be more dangerous in human-bear conflict situations and these events are taken very serious."
The announcement of the capture comes just one day after the USFW and National Perk Service released a draft plan analyzing options to restore grizzly bears to the North Cascades in Washington. According to the draft plan, the agencies would plan to release three to seven grizzly bears per year for five to 10 years to achieve an initial population of 25 bears. The plan says the long-term goal is to restore a self-sustaining population of 200 bears within approximately 60 to 100 years.
According to USFW, approximately 2,000 grizzlies are found in four isolated populations in the northern Rocky Mountains.
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